Katie Boulter and Emma Raducanu will battle it out for the British No 1 ranking at the upcoming Queen’s Club event.
The two are on opposite sides of the draw at the WTA 500 tournament with Raducanu finding herself in the top half along with top seed Zheng Qinwen while Boulter is in the bottom half, meaning they can only meet in the final.
However, their performances during the London event will ultimately decide who is the British No 1 in the WTA Rankings after the tournament.
Boulter has been Great Britain’s No 1 player since June 2023 when she replaced Raducanu, who had held the position for nearly three years as she took over after her 2021 US Open title run.
The pair have had contrasting fortunes in the past three seasons as Boulter won three WTA Tour titles and peaked at No 23 in the rankings.
Raducanu, meanwhile, hasn’t reached a final since her Flushing Meadows success and slumped to outside the top 300 due to poor form and a lengthy spell on the sidelines after surgery on both wrists and one ankle.
But the 22-year-old has made her way back up the standings and currently sits at No 37 in the Live Rankings following her second-round exit at the French Open with Boulter three places ahead of her.
As things stand:
34. Katie Boulter – 1,516 points
37. Emma Raducanu – 1,389
But as usual, players are defending points from events from 2024 and both competed at the Nottingham Open at the same time last year.
Boulter has a lot more to lose as she won WTA 250 event last June as she beat Raducanu in the semi-final and Karolina Pliskova in the final to win the title.
She will drop 250 points while Raducanu will drop 98 points following her run to the last four.
Once those points come off then Boulter’s tally sits at 1,266 and Raducanu will temporarily be the British No 1 as she will move to 1,291.
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It does mean Raducanu is in the driving seat as all she will have to do is equal or better Boulter’s run at the WTA 500 tournament to remain ahead.
Both are still to find out their first-round opponents at Queen’s Club as they are set to face qualifiers, but the draw gets trickier after that.
Of course, it’s not only the British No 1 position that is up for grabs, but both are aiming to be seeded at Wimbledon with the top 32 in the rankings getting the seeding status.
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