All matches cancelled!
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That is all, folks!
Play at Queen’s has been cancelled for the day following persistent rain in west London.
Friday looks set to busy. Match winners will most likely have to play twice in one day.
Check back in with us tomorrow.
Latest announcement
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No play now until 6.30pm on Andy Murray Arena and no further play on outside courts.
Two singles matches cancelled for today
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Elena Rybakina vs Tatjana Maria
Jaqueline Cristian vs Katie Boulter
Covers back on...
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No play before 6pm.
Looks like it is just one of those days at Queen’s.
It’s damp in west London but...
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...and I don’t want to tempt fate here, think it looks set to stay dry from here on in. Play could start at 4.30. Keep those fingers and toes crossed.
Raducanu confident ahead of tough test
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Emma Raducanu and mini resets are as much part of the British tennis landscape as Queen’s and rain delays (Exhibit A: today’s weather in London). But the British No 1 struck a confident figure both during and after her 6-0, 6-3 win over over qualifier Anna Blinkova on Tuesday. Enough to suggest that the green green grass of home may be what her season needed after year of mis-starts, inaction and frustration.
Obviously one match does not make a summer and the real tests are to come, starting with her match against Sorana Cîrstea in west London today. Yet, Raducanu sounded upbeat after the win on Tuesday saying (via writing on a TV camera) that she was happy to be “back home”, hinting at the possibility that this will not be another false dawn.
“Despite not having played a lot of matches, I was really pleased with how I came out and was playing very free,” the world No 42 said. “I think I was just feeding off of the atmosphere, and it felt free, it felt clear, and a lot of clarity. Not necessarily thinking too much, not trying to do too much.
“I love playing on grass. And playing at home, I think it also brings a really good side out of me.”
Raducanu will need all of that “good side” today when she faces Cirstea. The in-form Romanian stands at No 10 in the rankings for this season. And the last time the pair met, in the final of the Transylvania Open in early February, Cîrstea dished out a 6-0, 6-2 thrashing. The mitigating circumstance is that it was around the time when the Briton picked up the virus that has dogged season since.
So today’s match will serve up a useful gauge of where Raducanu’s game is, one that on Tuesday at least, looked to be heading in the right direction.
Stay here for all the action from west London where I imagine people will be doing the opposite of a rain dance (a sun dance?) in a bid to see some action at the famous club.