Emma Raducanu and Katie Boulter snubbed in favour of Serena Williams at Queen’s
Serena Williams’ return to tennis at Queen’s nearly four years after retirement was a major deal at the London event, with fans packing out the Andy Murray Arena.
Williams looked impressive alongside Victoria Mboko as they played out an entertaining first round match against Nicole Melichar-Martinez and Erin Routliffe.
While tennis fans are clearly loving having Williams back in the WTA Tour fold, her appearance at Queen’s had a ripple effect on Emma Raducanu and Katie Boulter.
Raducanu and Boulter have entered the Queen’s doubles draw for a second year in a row, rekindling ‘Boultercanu’ at their home tournament on the grass.
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The pair played out their first round match against Storm Hunter and Shuai Zhang on court one of Queen’s, which unfortunately isn’t televised by the BBC.
That means UK tennis fans were not able to see the third-ever doubles match played out by the top two players from their nation.
It’s an incredibly oversight from the BBC and fans were far from happy that they were not able to watch Raducanu and Boulter in action.
“Really disappointing that the BBC isn’t showing the Emma/Katie doubles match because they can only broadcast Andy Murray Arena at Queens. No stream, no alternative feed for UK viewers. Big match and British fans are missing out,” said one fan on social media.
“Why aren’t the Brits on the best court? Disgraceful. Oh hang on, it’s the Serena Williams show,” said another.
Another wrote: “I’m very disappointed in the bbc coverage of the 2nd show court at queen’s. Great that Serena’s playing again in front of her family but the brits should be on the BBC in front of theirs.”
Fans will get to see Boulter and Raducanu in singles action across the week, as they both won their opening round matches at Queen’s.
Both women are playing their first grass court event of the swing and they both impressed on the Andy Murray Arena at Queen’s.
Raducanu was impressive in victory against Anna Blinkova, as she raced to a 6-0, 6-3 victory in an hour to claim her first victory in nearly three months.
Boulter, meanwhile, responded to a lukewarm clay court swing by impressively dispatching Leylah Fernandez in three sets in a match that took place over two days due to rain delays.
Raducanu will next play Sorana Cirstea in the second round, while Boulter will play Jaqueline Cristian.
It is unclear whether those matches will take place on the Andy Murray Arena as yet, but it would be very surprising to see Raducanu and Boulter get snubbed again by the BBC.
