Preview WTA Queen's Club Championships 2025: Road to Wimbledon starts in historic return for first time in 30 years

The Queen's Club Championships takes place between 9-15 June, 2025 in what is the start of the grass court season and a high quality one at that compared to usual. Our preview looks ahead at all the leading talking points as the road to Wimbledon begins.

Usually only a feature of the men's ATP Tour, Queen's will be played the week before now on the WTA 500 tour too with Nottingham shifting to a week later. Libema Open s'Hertogenbosch is also taking place this next week as well as the Stuttgart Open.

Tournament Director is a familiar face and one that has assembled a superb line-up in former British No.1 Laura Robson. As expected Madison Keys as her close friend flanks the line-up alongside Zheng Qinwen and Emma Navarro.

As well as the leading trio, Elena Rybakina, Petra Kvitova and Barbora Krejcikova as former and in the case of the latter current Wimbledon champions will begin their grass court season.

Jessica Pegula and Naomi Osaka were marquee early signings for the tournament but both have since withdrawn and will not start their seasons this week but indeed Berlin the week after. A tournament also intriguingly attended by Emma Raducanu.

Raducanu and Katie Boulter will lead a heavy British contingent. The former US Open champion instead of solely remaining in the UK during the grass court season will make a jump over to Germany next week before returning to the UK in time to play Eastbourne.

She will also have stability this grass court season. For the first time since her US Open win, she is playing regularly and is fit again after being injured a lot over the past two years. She also has Mark Petchey as her coach for the whole of the grass court season. He has reduced his commitments during Wimbledon and so will be Raducanu's full-time coach for a while.

It has paid dividends too with her game coming on leaps and bounds and she again will receive a good welcome likely in a prime time slot. She could face the current Wimbledon champion Barbora Krejcikova and then maybe Zheng Qinwen in the Quarter-Finals.

Also she will likely benefit this summer from the attention for once not being entirely on her. Jack Draper instead will take that mantle as a top five player on the tour and it may allow Raducanu and also Katie Boulter to thrive under the freedom that not having the British tabloids on their back may give.

Boulter has also been an intriguing case. She was superb last season on the British grass as she should be. She won Nottingham for the second year in a row and recently won a title on clay surprisingly in the typical Roland Garros WTA 125k warm-up Trophee Clarins.

So as ever she will be interesting to watch. Sonay Kartal has also reached new heights, while Jodie Burrage after horrific injury luck is looking more herself again. Gone are the days of Heather Watson and Harriet Dart dominating the draws from a British perspective and it is a quartet of talent which aren't just home hopes to draw bums on seats.

Madison Keys as second seed has said she is looking forward to returning to grass. She lost in the Last 16 through a walkover to Jasmine Paolini last year so has a point to prove. She will also likely tussle early on with Donna Vekic who is always superb on the surface.

Diana Shnaider also won a title last season on the grass and could face Keys in the latter stages. Rybakina also is looking more herself despite Stefano Vukov still hanging around in the background. But she won Strasbourg and heads onto a surface with her best success of her career to date. She also has a pretty good run.

Leylah Fernandez and Karolina Muchova are in her section. Fernandez has been in no form while Muchova has mooted she may need surgery again so Rybakina could have a great week.

While Emma Navarro as third seed also heads onto grass after a Quarter-Final Wimbledon run last time out. She also beat recent French Open winner Coco Gauff so has good pedigree on grass. She could face an ailing Kvitova or Beatriz Haddad Maia - a dead cert to do well usually on this surface.

In that section too is also the intrigue of Daria Kasatkina, another grass court operator who won Eastbourne last year. She faces Sonay Kartal then it could be Amanda Anisimova. Also there is an engagement as Kasatkina got engaged to Natalia Zabiiako as announced yesterday to mark Pride Month. A real feel good story and she will hope that gives some luck ahead of grass.