HSBC Championships 2025: Heather Watson downs Yulia Putintseva to ease into second round
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Britain’s Heather Watson has got her HSBC Championships campaign off to a flying start after knocking out 2024 Lexus Birmingham Open champion Yulia Putintseva in the first round.
The British qualifier needed just an hour and 22 minutes to beat the Kazakh in a dominant 6-4, 6-3 win on Court 1.
The former world No.38 came through two rounds of qualifying to reach the main draw and has now earnt a second round clash with former Wimbledon champion Elena Rybakina.
With this court being new territory for the WTA players, Watson’s wins over Ena Shibahara and Zeynep Sonmez would’ve likely provided her with a slight advantage heading into her match against the world No.27, who was contesting her first match of this season's grass court swing.
Watson is joined in the second round by compatriots Katie Boulter, Emma Raducanu and Sonay Kartal.
"I’m very happy with my performance today," Watson reflected after her win. "With each match I feel like I’ve got better and better. I’m starting to really find my form and my game. I’m feeling calmer and trusting my game as well.
"I’m so happy to be at Queen’s – having a women’s event here and playing well in it."
It’s so special (being here) – I sent a message to my team group chat before this week saying do we play Queen’s or Ilkley this week and everyone said Queen’s, 100%. What a great decision.
Watson has managed to consistently find her best tennis on the grass in recent years, having reached the semi-finals at four grass court tournaments - Eastbourne (2014, 2017), Birmingham (2021) and Nottingham (2023) as well as making the fourth round at Wimbledon in 2022.
The Brit was first off the mark against the former Birmingham champion as she rallied to a 5-2 lead before Putintseva threatened the comeback by clawing back to 5-4.
Despite letting her lead slip, Watson managed to regain her composure at the right moment - earning a crucial break to love to seal the first set.
Putintseva looked to pin Watson back early in the second - forcing the Brit to save four break points in her opening service game to stay on top of the match.
The 33-year-old proved much more clinical than her opponent during the big points and converted all four of her break point opportunities throughout the contest.
A break to the good and with the chance to serve out the match, Watson closed out her first WTA Tour-level victory since September 2024 with a thunderous serve that Putintseva returned wide to send the British crowd on their feet.
Watson now faces Putintseva’s compatriot and fourth seed Rybakina in the next round. This will mark the second career meeting between the two, with the first coming in 2022 at the Hobart International where the Kazakh edged a tight encounter, 6-3, 4-6, 6-4.
While Rybakina may be ranked 137 places above Watson in the WTA rankings, she’ll arrive in the second round with plenty of confidence and belief from her three victories at The Queen’s Club so far.
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