Emma Raducanu keen to explore doubles partnership with Katie Boulter

By Rachel Steinberg, PA

Emma Raducanu revealed she hopes to keep exploring her doubles partnership with Katie Boulter after the pair bowed out in the quarter-finals at Queen’s following a 6-2 7-5 defeat to Ukrainian Lyudmyla Kichenok and Erin Routliffe of New Zealand.

The duo, who have been bestowed the portmanteau ‘Boultercanu’, earlier this week described the “spontaneous” nature of their decision to pair up ahead of this tournament.

After booking their place with a straight-sets opening victory over Wu Fang-Hsien and Jiang Xinyu on Monday, they faced a much tougher test in the top-seeded doubles pair.

“Katie made me feel really comfortable out there over the two matches and I hope we can team up again soon,” said 2021 US Open winner and former British number one Raducanu, who next faces Slovakian Rebecca Sramkova in the last 16 of the singles on Thursday afternoon.

“Given the quick turnaround from clay to grass it’s great to get some extra matchplay on grass. The atmosphere again was unreal.”

This is the first time in 52 years that women’s tennis has been hosted at Queen’s.

It was just the third doubles match in Raducanu’s career and only the second time she paired up with Boulter.

The two still looked to be ironing out the finer points of their partnership when they clashed rackets in the first game and were down a break early on before Kichenok and Routliffe claimed the first set with another break.

The Britons grew into the match more in the second set – amusingly interrupted for a moment so a security guard could rescue a bee that had wandered down the baseline – bouncing back from a 4-1 deficit to level and converting their first break point of the match en route.

But they squandered an opportunity to turn the screw when they could not convert four break points in the next game, and – despite plenty of encouragement from the crowd – eventually fell to the favourites.

Boulter opens the action at the larger Andy Murray Arena on Thursday morning at midday, when she faces fifth-seed Diana Shnaider.

“Me and Emma played some very good tennis over these two doubles matches and our level was really high,” she said. “The support from the crowd was immense as well and we’re really grateful that so many people came out to support us.”

British qualifier Heather Watson’s meeting with former Wimbledon champion Elena Rybakina immediately follows on the newly-renamed centre court before wild card Raducanu’s clash with Sramkova.

Sonay Kartal’s Queen’s campaign came to an end after the British wild card was defeated 6-1 6-3 by eighth seed Amanda Anisimova.

Kartal, who confirmed she plans to participate at next week’s Nottingham Open, said: “(Anisimova) didn’t do too much wrong in that one. You just take it on the chin. The good thing about the grass is we are a couple of days and we’re back at it again.”

The British number three had booked her place in the second round on Monday after beating world number 16 Daria Kasatkina for the biggest win of her career.

British doubles specialist Olivia Nicholls and her partner, Slovakian Tereza Mihalikova, lost 7-6 (3) 7-6 (5) to third seeds Ellen Perez (Australia) and Shuai Zhang (China).