After a rainy day in West London, the action finally got underway on the opening day at the HSBC Championships.
Headlining Monday’s winners is British wild card Harriet Dart who battled through a testing opener against Liudmila Samsonova, winning 5-7, 6-4, 6-3 in two hours and 48 minutes.
Dart was broken in the final game of the opening set, but showed great resilience to fight back against the world No.35. After levelling the match to a set apiece, the Briton converted three of her eight break point opportunities in the decider to reach the second round where she’ll take on fourth seed Belinda Bencic.
Elsewhere, world No.38 Jaqueline Cristian defeated last year’s semi-finalist Qinwen Zheng 6-4, 7-6(4) to earn just her second ever main draw win on the grass.
It was a strong start for Cristian, who was making her debut at The Queen’s Club this afternoon. The Romanian won 84% of points behind her first serve (37/44) and found the decisive mini-break in the second set tie-break before punching her ticket to the second round as the 2024 Paris Olympic champion fired a forehand long.
Elsewhere, Karolina Pliskova fought through a testing battle against reigning Lexus Nottingham Open champion McCartney Kessler – winning 6-7(1), 6-3, 6-4.
Kessler fought back from 4-1 down to take the opening set tie-break, but former world No.1 Pliskova responded well – breaking the American five times across the second and third sets to seal victory on Court 1.
Meanwhile, Katie Boulter will return to court tomorrow after her match against former US Open finalist Leylah Fernandez was suspended due to daylight. The Brit lost the first set 6-3, but has raised her level in the second, with the scoreboard currently tied at 3-3.