Emma Raducanu’s productive week at Wimbledon ended with boos for her Chinese opponent Qinwen Zheng.
The 2021 US Open champion won her first doubles match alongside fellow Brit Katie Boulter at Queen’s – and then leapfrogged her in the rankings.
With a win over Rebecca Sramkova, Raducanu moved to 35th in the women’s rankings, regaining her spot as Britain’s No.1 for the first time in over two years.
Yet she then exited at the quarter-finals with a 6-2, 6-4 defeat to Zheng, who got on the crowd’s nerves.
During the first set Zheng went 3-2 up, but then experienced multiple slips and took a time out to change her shoes.
However, the switch of equipment started dragging on as she changed her orthotics over, and the London crowd got restless with a smattering of boos.
Raducanu also seemed to be getting bored, and kept herself warmed up by smashing a practice serve down the court.
However, USTA and ITP rules state that practice serves are only allowed during the warm up before the match.
BBC commentator – and former WTA star – Annabel Croft was quick to point that out.
Croft said: “I don’t know if Raducanu is meant to hit a ball like that.
“She’s just practiced a serve and normally you’re not meant to do that!”
The umpire was uninterested in the breach, and Zheng would apologise and get back to business.
Zheng proceeded to win every game for a 6-2 first set win, before a less comfortable 6-4 to seal her place in the last-four.
Queen’s or the HSBC Championships as it’s become known due to sponsorship reasons, has welcomed back women’s singles in 2025 for the first time since 1973.
The west London event is seen as a prelude to Wimbledon which runs from June 30 to July 13.
Raducanu impressed at last year’s tournament, progressing to the fourth round after taking down then-world No.9 Maria Sakkari.
She was the last British player left in the tournament and was looking to better her 2021 fourth round finish.
But she couldn’t get to the quarter-finals as surprise package Lulu Sun knocked her out.
The 22-year-old still appears to be on the comeback trail, though, recording her best finishes at the Australian Open and French Open this year after periods of injury hell.
