Emma Raducanu and Katie Boulter to form 'extremely special' doubles pairing for Queen's ahead of Wimbledon 2025
Published 08/06/2025 at 18:04 GMT+1
Britain's top-two ranked female tennis players will play doubles together for the first time this week. Emma Raducanu and Katie Boulter, who are set to rise into the world's top 40, will team up at Queen's. Both will also be involved in the singles draw in London. Boulter believes the extra court time will be crucial ahead of Wimbledon, which gets underway on Monday, June 30.
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Video credit: TNT Sports
Britain's top two female tennis players are set to forge a formidable doubles team this week.
Katie Boulter and Emma Raducanu will partner up for the HSBC Championships at Queen's.
The London venue is hosting a women's singles and doubles tournament after a 52-year hiatus.
And the UK's best-ranked female players will mark the occasion by taking to the court on the same side of the net for the first time.
"I think myself and Emma, we’ve been wanting to play for a while now," Boulter said, as she confirmed the news.
"I think we’ve talked about it a lot of times, and unfortunately, it just hasn’t quite happened for various reasons.
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"I think [for the] first week on grass, to get a couple more matches is super important."
Both players come into the tournament on the back of the clay court season, one in which Raducanu showed particular improvement on the surface.
The former US Open Champion got to the last 16 of the Italian Open in Rome for the first time, before being hammered by Iga Swiatek in the second round at Roland Garros.
Boulter, 22, reached the same stage in Paris, with a three-set vicory over Carole Monnet followed by a comfortable loss at the hands of Australian Open champion Madison Keys.
That was, however, the first time she had won a match at the French Open, and both players will rise into the top 40 in the world rankings this week.
With Wimbledon just around the corner, and the top 32 players seeded for that event, Boulter says the early exit in Paris has a silver lining, because it has meant more time getting used to a change of surface.
"I think we were actually here at Queen’s, practising on the clay, and we decided we thought we’d come back and play on the grass together," she continued.
"It’ll be extremely special. Obviously, she’s a great player, and I’m looking forward to [this being] the first of many more."
The Chinese pair of Wu Fang-Hsien and Jiang Xinyu await Raducanu and Boulter in the first round.
Should they progress, they could face another all-British pair, in the form of Jodie Burrage and Sonay Kartal.
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Both will also be using the tournament as an important warm-up for Wimbledon, which gets underway Monday, June 30.
In the women's singles at Queens, Boulter will open up against a qualifier, while fifth seed Diana Shnaider from Russia potentially lies in wait in the second round.
Raducanu faces a similar fate, as last year's Wimbledon winner Barbora Krejcikova is her likely opponent, should she beat a qualifier in the first round.
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