Emma Raducanu walked back into the grass season with the kind of start she needed, racing past Anna Blinkova 6-0, 6-3 at Queen's in London on Tuesday to reach the second round in one hour. It was a clean, one-sided win that ended her WTA Tour victory drought dating to Indian Wells in March and gave her a first-round result she has badly wanted after a difficult spring.
The win mattered because it finally looked like Raducanu had shaken off the stops and starts that have blunted her season. She had been sidelined by illness after Indian Wells, returned only in Strasbourg, then lost her opening matches there and at Roland Garros before arriving at Queen's ranked No. 42 in the PIF WTA Rankings. On this court, though, she looked far more settled, converting six of her eight break-point chances and winning 72% of her first-serve points, even though Blinkova actually posted the better first-serve percentage.
Raducanu said she had not played a lot of matches and was pleased with how freely she came out against Blinkova. She said she was feeding off the atmosphere, playing with clarity and without trying to do too much, and that the match felt natural. That is the sort of language players use when a performance has come together easily, but it also explained why the scoreline was so lopsided: Blinkova could get more first serves in, yet Raducanu took control of the points that followed.
There is still a long way to go before this week can be called a revival. Raducanu's best grass-court result remains her run to the quarterfinals at Queen's last year, and her next opponent, No. 17 seed Sorana Cirstea, will ask far more serious questions after beating qualifier Maddison Inglis 6-4, 5-7, 6-2. But after a match like this, the bigger question is no longer whether Raducanu can compete on grass; it is how deep she can push a draw that is already opening up around her.
Elsewhere in the women's draw, Katie Boulter rallied from a set and a break down to beat No. 8 seed Leylah Fernandez 3-6, 7-6, 7-5 and will next face Jaqueline Cristian for a place in the quarterfinals. Alexandra Eala and Iva Jovic also advanced in straight sets, while Marta Kostyuk withdrew because of a right ankle injury and Donna Vekic came into the draw to face Mika Stojsavljevic.
