Queen’s has just made a major mistake which could cost Emma Raducanu the title

It’s fair to say this year’s Queen Club Championships has been marred by several unfortunate incidents throughout the WTA Tour’s tournament.

Victoria Mboko suffered a nasty fall in her match against Karolina Pliskova, which forced her out of her doubles match with Serena Williams, as well as Wimbledon.

Thursday’s order of play was completely cancelled due to typical English rain, which has had a difficult effect on the rest of the grass court tournament.

The event has been forced to play catch-up with several stars having to play twice on Friday’s order of play, including Elena Rybakina and Katie Boulter.

It worked out terrifically for Boulter, but less for Rybakina, as she was handed a surprise defeat at the hands of the British No. 1.

Boulter defeated Jaqueline Cristian and Rybakina on the same day to reach the second WTA Tour semi-final of her season, following her victory at the Ostrava Open earlier this year.

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With play severely backed-up, Emma Raducanu’s quarter-final clash with Kamilla Rakhimova was not able to be played on the Andy Murray Arena.

That means Raducanu will be forced to play twice during Saturday, 13th June’s order of play, while her potential semi-final opponent, Iva Jovic, will be relatively fresh.

It seems utterly bizarre that the Queen’s organisers didn’t shift around the order of play to get Raducanu’s match played on an outside court, but The Guardian seems to have an answer as to why.

The publication said: “Raducanu should have been scheduled to compete on Court 1, the second court, but broadcast contracts at Queen’s prohibit the second court from being shown on any live broadcast, meaning the tournament organisers held out hope that they would arrive on court in time.”

While fans, both at home and on the Andy Murray Arena, would have liked to see Raducanu’s last eight clash with Rakhimova, the UK tournament should have just bitten the bullet and put her on court one.

It would have levelled the playing field with Jovic ahead of a potential meeting in the semi-final and a British player should absolutely receive that priority.

Instead, Raducanu could be forced to play up to six sets in one day as she looks to end her trophy drought, which dates back to her maiden win at the 2021 US Open.

Raducanu has shown real promise on the grass at Queen’s this week and it her exit could come down to an administration error on the part of the tournament.

With no players from the WTA Tour top 15 left in the event, that would be incredibly disappointing for the British No. 1.

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