Wimbledon 2025: Katie Boulter beats ninth seed Paula Badosa while Emma Raducanu comes through all-British clash
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Katie Boulter and Emma Raducanu have capped off a day full of British wins at The Championships, Wimbledon after coming through their opening round matches.
Boulter fought back in the deciding set to overcome world No.9 Paula Badosa 6-2, 3-6, 6-4 - marking the biggest upset of the day by ranking.
Meanwhile, British No.1 Raducanu opened up her campaign with a straight sets victory over fellow Brit and wild card Mimi Xu, winning 6-3, 6-3.
Their victories now mean seven Brits have secured spots in the second round at Wimbledon - the most successful day in the Open Era - after Sonay Kartal, Cam Norrie, Billy Harris, Arthur Fery and qualifier Oliver Tarvet all clocked wins earlier on in the day.
Boulter's first round clash against ninth seed Badosa stole the headlines when the draw was made just a few days ago. The British No.2 has had a mixed start to her grass court season, but took the week leading up to the tournament to focus her full attention on Wimbledon, and the gamble well and truly paid off.
The 28-year-old's win over the Spaniard marked her fourth career-win over a top 10 player and will fuel her with plenty of confidence heading into her next meeting against lucky loser Solana Sierra.
Badosa has had a standout year so far, and showed glimpses of the form that carried her to the semi-finals of the Australian Open back in January. The former Indian Wells champion ramped up the intensity and made the most of her chances as she broke the Brit twice on her way to levelling the scoreboard.
The Spanish No.1 looked to carry the momentum into the decider - capitalising on her fifth break point in the opening game before the British No.2 recovered the deficit immediately in a gruelling game to hang firm.
When the pressure was on, Boulter was the one who stood firm. Serving at 5-4 down the errors kept coming off the Badosa racket to set up three match points and eventually the ninth seed buried the ball in the net once more to seal a fourth career top 10 win for Boulter.
Meanwhile, Raducanu faced her own battle over on Court 1 as she took on a resilient Xu who was competing on the biggest stage of her career to date.
Speaking on court after her win, Raducanu said how proud she was to overcome the challenges throughout the match and credits the home crowd for carrying her through some of the tougher moments.
“I’m super pleased to have come through that match,” she smiled. “It’s so difficult playing another Brit in the first round, when the draw came out I can’t say I was loving it. Mimi is a really dangerous player, she’s so young and she’s got some amazing weapons at her disposal.
“I’m really happy to have come through that and I just want to thank everyone for the support on both sides, it was a really nice atmosphere.
“I think I had really good patches and then I had some patches where I lost my focus and Mimi was able to come back. I’m really happy how I toughed it out in the crucial games and won the important points today.”
I love playing in this atmosphere - it’s my favourite tournament by far so I’m so happy to get another match here.
Xu has enjoyed some standout wins on the grass so far this summer, including a quarter-final appearance in Birmingham and first round wins in both Ilkley and Nottingham. However, little can compare to the feeling of stepping out onto one of the biggest courts at Wimbledon.
Naturally, there were some early signs of nerves for the teenager which were prevalent in her opening service game. Raducanu looked to capitalise on the shaky start and made her move early, breaking immediately to race ahead to a 2-0 lead.
From then on out, the former US Open champion was sturdy on serve - winning all 13 points behind her first serve and dropping just three points overall as she rattled through her service games.
The Swansea-born star hit nearly an equal number of winners across the match (21) compared to Raducanu (24) but racked up more than double the amount of errors to give Raducanu a look in on serve as she secured the double break and a one set lead.
Fired up from a clinical opening set Raducanu picked up where she left off early in the second, breaking Xu opening service game once again on her fifth break point.
After opening up a 2-0, 40-0 lead, Raducanu looked to be running away with the match but the 17-year-old wild card dug deep to claw to deuce before converting her first break point.
However, Raducanu’s dominance on serve soon began to fade as we hit a rocky patch consisting of five consecutive breaks but it was the world No.40 who had the last say before backing up the decisive break to take a 5-2 lead.
Xu managed to catch a glimpse of another opportunity to hang in the set as she sprinted ahead to 30-0 as Raducanu stepped up to serve for the match, but she managed to stave off the pressure - reeling off four points in a row to seal the win.
Raducanu became the sixth Brit to reach the second round at Wimbledon today, after a day of British wins - follow results and updates.
