{"id":623260,"date":"2026-06-05T20:13:15","date_gmt":"2026-06-05T20:13:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/623260\/"},"modified":"2026-06-05T20:13:15","modified_gmt":"2026-06-05T20:13:15","slug":"five-reasons-to-be-excited-for-the-2026-hsbc-championships","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/623260\/","title":{"rendered":"Five reasons to be excited for the 2026 HSBC Championships"},"content":{"rendered":"

Want to watch Williams live\u00a0at the HSBC Championships? There are limited tickets still available for the WTA 500 event at The Queen\u2019s Club, so grab your tickets now before\u00a0it\u2019s\u00a0too late.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Buy tickets<\/a><\/p>\n

Home\u00a0favourites\u00a0gunning for grass court success\u00a0<\/p>\n

British fans will have plenty to look forward to, with a strong home contingent set to compete across both draws.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Starting off on the women\u2019s side, former US Open champion Emma Raducanu<\/a> is in the WTA draw alongside with wild cards Katie Boulter<\/a>, Francesca Jones<\/a>, Harriet\u00a0Dart<\/a>\u00a0and Mika Stojsavljevic<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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Raducanu reached the\u00a0quarter-finals\u00a0at Queen\u2019s last year and will be aiming to go deeper this time as she targets a second WTA final of the season following her runner-up finish at the Transylvania Open.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In the men\u2019s event\u00a0British No.1 Cam Norrie<\/a> leads the charge as\u00a0the world No.24\u00a0bids to win his\u00a0first ATP grass court title. Norrie is a former HSBC Championships runner-up, having reached the final back in 2021 where he fell short to Italian Matteo Berrettini in three-sets.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Former world No.4 Jack Draper<\/a> will also be making his return to action at the HSBC Championships, having suffered a knee injury\u00a0that\u2019s\u00a0kept him away from the match court since the Barcelona Open back in April.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

The tournament will also mark the first time Draper\u00a0has\u00a0new coach Andy Murray in his corner, with the pair hoping to get their partnership off to a winning start on the same court where Murray was crowned a five-time champion.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Next generation stars ready to shine\u00a0<\/p>\n

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Alongside established names, a new wave of talent will be\u00a0hungry\u00a0to make their mark\u00a0on the grass\u00a0this summer.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Iva Jovic\u00a0could be a strong contender for the\u00a0title\u00a0having already proven she has the game to succeed on grass.\u00a0The 18-year-old was crowned Lexus Ilkley Open champion last summer and has\u00a0since gone on to\u00a0break into the world\u2019s top 20, lift\u00a0her first WTA 500 title and reach the\u00a0quarter-finals\u00a0at the Australian Open.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Set to challenge her, is\u00a02025\u00a0Lexus Eastbourne Open runner-up Alexandra Eala. The\u00a021-year-old from the Philippines\u00a0is one of the most popular stars\u00a0on the\u00a0WTA Tour,\u00a0and\u00a0attracts a host of support at every tournament\u00a0she competes at.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Britain\u2019s\u00a0Stojsavljevic will be one to watch as well, having made an impressive start to the grass court season at the Lexus Birmingham Open. \u00a0<\/p>\n

Meanwhile on the ATP side, Roland Garros semi-finalist Jakub Mensik will return to Queen\u2019s for the second year in a row.\u00a0The Czech star will arrive fresh off the back of contesting his first Grand Slam semi-final in Paris and will be hoping to\u00a0continue his red-hot form on the grass.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Joining him is Spain\u2019s Rafael\u00a0Jodar\u00a0\u2013 who has well and truly taken the tennis world by storm over.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Last year,\u00a0the\u00a019-year-old was a university student ranked\u00a0world No.707\u00a0\u2013now, the Spaniard is\u00a0ranked inside the world\u2019s top 30,\u00a0has lifted his first tour-level title in Marrakech and made his first Grand Slam quarter-final\u00a0in Paris.\u00a0<\/p>\n

While still relatively new to the surface,\u00a0it\u2019ll\u00a0be interesting to see how Jodar\u2019s game develops on the grass, with the teenager set to be an underdog at this year\u2019s HSBC Championships.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Get involved with the action early with HSBC Championships Opened Up\u00a0<\/p>\n

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Looking to get involved with the action early? Sunday 7 June will see the HSBC Championships Opened Up take place, bringing an action-packed day full of live tennis, challenges\u00a0and more.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Watch live practice sessions with the top women\u2019s players including world No.2 Elena Rybakina, last year\u2019s runner-up Amanda Anisimova and Leylah Fernandez, enjoy a fun doubles exhibition with some\u00a0very special\u00a0guests\u00a0and\u00a0watch the star compete in a set of tennis challenges.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It\u2019s\u00a0the perfect day out for all the family, with\u00a0kids\u00a0tickets being free\u00a0when booking with an\u00a0accompanying\u00a0adult and adult tickets costing \u00a325. All proceeds will go to the LTA Tennis Foundation \u2013 the LTA\u2019s official charity with a mission to improve lives through tennis.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Get your tickets<\/a><\/p>\n

A world-class field packed with proven champions
\n\"\"<\/p>\n

The HSBC Championships has long featured the world\u2019s best players, and amongst this year\u2019s entry list is a host of proven performers on grass.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Former Wimbledon champion Rybakina\u00a0headlines the women\u2019s field as the top seed\u00a0and\u00a0will be\u00a0hunting down a second grass court title four years on from her Wimbledon triumph.\u00a0Rybakina\u00a0has\u00a0already lifted trophies on the hard and clay courts this season and will be\u00a0eager to\u00a0add another on the surface where she claimed her first major title.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Switzerland\u2019s Belinda Bencic has enjoyed a resurgent return to the WTA tour and will be hoping to channel the form that led her to\u00a0the 2015 Eastbourne title when she returns to the grass this summer. Meanwhile,\u00a0Karolina Pliskova\u00a0is also a proven grass court champion having won titles in Nottingham (2015) and Eastbourne (2017, 2019).\u00a0<\/p>\n

On the men\u2019s side, 2024 title-winner Tommy Paul\u00a0is so to return to The Queen\u2019s Club in pursuit of reclaiming his crown\u00a0and is joined by\u00a0former Eastbourne winners Alex de Minaur and Francisco Cerundolo who will all be strong contenders for the title.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

While\u00a0he\u2019s\u00a0yet to win silverware on the grass, Denmark\u2019s Holger Rune\u00a0is set to make his comeback at Queen\u2019s after being out of the game since October due to injury. The former world No.4 has previously made the semi-finals at the HSBC Championships and\u00a0has recorded a career-best run to the\u00a0quarter-finals\u00a0at Wimbledon.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Want to watch Williams live\u00a0at the HSBC Championships? There are limited tickets still available for the WTA 500…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":623261,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[101,118,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-623260","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-sports","tag-tennis","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/623260","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=623260"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/623260\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/623261"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=623260"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=623260"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=623260"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}