The bizarre reason why Emma Raducanu has to play two matches in a day at Queen's Club Championships as Rakhimova faces immediate dash to Nottingham in defeat

Emma Raducanu has barely played in recent months due to illness, but if she is to make it to the Queen's final, it will be a huge test of her mental and physical fortitude after scheduling came under fire on Friday.

Raducanu, unlike Katie Boulter, Donna Vekic, and Iva Jovic, who are already through to the semi-finals, will have to play at least two matches on Saturday to reach the final, as she has become the main victim of the rain earlier this week, and the catch-up needs to be played regarding matches at Queen's.

Raducanu achieved her first win against a top 20 opponent in over a year by seeing off Sorana Cirstea who she lost to in the final of Cluj in February. The 23-year-old has not won back-to-back matches since that tournament four months ago. But there was not enough time for the British number one to play her match against Kamilla Rakhimova mainly due to both Boulter and Jovic going three on Friday.

No play was possible on Thursday at Queen's due to rain. But also, there were separate issues in play. As per The Guardian, the reason that Raducanu was not moved to Court 1 was due to the UK broadcasters only showing one court. Because of this Raducanu/Rakhimova winner has to play twice.

Also it was said that the tournament organisers who have already come under fire this week for perceived poor planning were holding out hope in case Raducanu could play on Friday likely to pacify the broadcasters who would've wanted the former US Open champion to be on court on live TV.

Instead now she has to play twice in a day and Rakhimova has also had her next week semi put up in the air. They decided also to not play the game early doors on Saturday when Rakhimova is scheduled to play qualifying in Nottingham today. She is pencilled in for two games and given that Queen's is over two hours away by car, she will face a race against time likely if she loses and if she wins against Raducanu, she won't be playing Nottingham next week.

This will also likely favour Iva Jovic in all of this who is in great form anyway and is the defacto favourite for the title given Rybakina and Anisimova who she beat are now out and she is the highest ranked player left in.

The 18-year-old American continues to rise and if she plays Raducanu wouldn't have played a game earlier that day either. An all British final could in theory be in play though as Boulter plays Vekic. But also the decision to not play Raducanu v Rakhimova could bite a potential home run for the tournament if Raducanu then falters against Jovic.

She has already said this week that she has had to take special measures in order to be right for the games including six warm-ups as the uncertainty has reigned and it has been the same again here. "It was really difficult yesterday. I think I did six warm-ups. You also don’t know what to eat - I had four flapjacks instead of proper food so my stomach was definitely feeling it. The crowd’s dedication was incredible to see, so when they cancelled us, I just wanted to say thank you for sticking around.”