HSBC Championships 2025: Best bits from media day including Katie Boulter, Qinwen Zheng & Madison Keys

While matches got started on court, we got the chance to hear from several of the top players competing at the WTA event this week – the first women’s tour-level tournament at Queen’s for over 50 years. 

British No.1 Katie Boulter, top seed Qinwen Zheng and Australian Open champion Madison Keys spoke about the start of their grass court seasons and their excitement at playing at the HSBC Championships for the first time. 

Boulter ‘feeling the history’ at The Queen’s Club 

For the top-ranked British player, the chance to compete at Queen’s for the first time is a dream come true.  

For many years as a kid and then more recently cheering on her fiancé Alex de Minaur, Boulter has watched from the sidelines here in West London and is now relishing her chance at history at a new home event. 

“You can feel how excited everyone is,” she said. “Getting the chance to play here is an absolute privilege so I’m going to enjoy every minute of it. 

“I’ve come here quite a bit watching tennis and I’ve got some good memories of coming and watching Alex (De Minaur) over the last few years. I’ve always said to myself, I wish there was a women’s event here, I wish I had the chance to play on this court.  

“You can feel the history, you can feel how incredible it is. I’ve seen this court packed and obviously it’s new this year, which is going to be a really interesting moment for me because I think I’m going to feel a lot of support from the British crowd. I’m going to get a lot of emotions coming out of me at that point.” 

Grass is a surface where Boulter has secured some of her best results in the past – namely, her back-to-back titles in Nottingham over the last two seasons. 

In her first event back from the clay, the Brit is hoping she can build some momentum this week to kick-start her favourite time of the season.  

“Coming into the grass court season it’s a completely clean slate,” Boulter explained. “For the first week on grass there are no expectations. Obviously coming to a WTA 500 at an incredible event it does bring out stress a little bit more and I want to do well here, but I know it’s my first week and I’m trying to build towards Wimbledon as well.” 

One of the big headlines this weekend has been that Boulter will team up with fellow Brit Emma Raducanu in the doubles – a new partnership that the 28-year-old says has been a long time in the making. 

“Myself and Emma have been wanting to play for a while now. We’ve been talking about it a lot of times and unfortunately it hasn’t happened until now for a variety of reasons.  

“We were here a few weeks ago practicing on the clay and we decided we’d come back on the grass together. It will be extremely special – she’s a great player and I’m looking forward to it.” 

Zheng expecting the unexpected this week 

World No.7, Zheng, comes into the HSBC Championships as the top seed, following an incredibly strong 12 months on the tour. 

The 22-year-old admitted that she’s expecting this week to be highly unpredictable with most players competing in their first grass court tournament of the season. 

“For me, it’s a bit too early to say that because it’s everybody’s first grass court tournament so lots of tricky things are going to happen,” Zheng said.  

“It’s not the best player who’s going to win this tournament; it’s the player who adapts more during the match who can comfort themselves through every single problem that they have. Let’s see what’s going to happen. 

“The more time and experience I have on grass it will be more benefit to me, but I will never say it’s going to be a huge difference because everybody understands it is different.” 

Keys eager to get going in ‘favourite swing’ 

2025 has been a standout year for Keys – winning her first Grand Slam title at the Australian Open, cementing her spot in the top 10 and last week reaching the quarter-finals at Roland Garros, narrowly losing out to eventual champion Coco Gauff. 

Arriving in London, Keys brings a wealth of grass court experience and has already won titles in Birmingham and Eastbourne in the past and could be a front runner for the title this week. 

“I’m really excited to be here,” Keys said. “I love the grass swing and it’s our first time here for many, many years is going to be really fun. 

“I’ve always heard good things about the tournament, the guys always rave about how good it is here and that they love it here. 

“It feels a little bit different (to Wimbledon) – admittedly I’ve not been out of Wimbledon much when I come here so it’s nice to see a different part of London. I’ve always loved the grass swing and played a lot of tournaments in the UK so adding this one to the list as well. 

“There’s a lot of opportunity this grass court season. I have done well on grass, won a few titles and gone deep in other tournaments. I always feel comfortable on the grass and it’s my favourite swing of the year so it will be fun to get started here.”