Spectators had been queuing for an hour outside Court One in the hopes of catching a glimpse of Katie Boulter and Emma Raducanu. One immaculately-dressed lady, a parody of Queen’s genteel West Kensington surroundings, complained that she had bought tickets for the Andy Murray Arena in the expectation that Britain's top two female singles players would be in action there, and seemed baffled that she couldn’t access the smaller court they had in fact been assigned.
Those who had secured tickets for the small, intimate Court One enjoyed the sight of a fired-up Raducanu and Boulter securing their first win of the grass-court season, and their first as a somewhat surprising doubles pairing. The pair beat doubles specialists Xinyu Jiang of China and Fang-Hsien Wu of Taiwan 6-4, 6-2, in a match that was a fascinating insight into both players’ attitude at the start of the swing.
