WTA Queen's Club Championships outright predictions: Rybakina can reign at Queen's
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- Queen's Club hosts a women's event for the first time since 1973
- WTA No.5 Qinwen Zheng is the top seed in west London
- Recommended bets:
- Elena Rybakina to win the WTA Queen's Club Championships
- Amanda Anisimova to win & each-way
The Queen's Club hosts women's tennis for the first time in more than 50 years as the revived WTA Queen's Club Championships heralds the start of the British grass-court season.
Taking place a week before the long-running men's tournament at the London venue, this WTA 500 competition has attracted a number of big names, including Australian Open winner Madison Keys and reigning Olympic champion Qinwen Zheng.
Wimbledon champions take aim at more grass success
In addition to Keys and Zheng, three Wimbledon champions are bidding to claim the Queen's title.
Barbora Krejcikova has struggled for form and fitness since her shock title run in south-west London last year, while two-time Wimbledon winner Petra Kvitova is a long way from the force of old.
Instead, it is 2022 winner Elena Rybakina who is the likely contender from those with Major-winning grass pedigree.
The British challenge is headed up by Emma Raducanu, who could meet Krejcikova in round two, and Katie Boulter, who faces a tough route through a stronger bottom half.
Prediction
Elena Rybakina has reached at least the last eight of Wimbledon in each of the last three seasons, and it would be a surprise if the big-serving Kazakhstani fails to produce a deep run at Queen's this week.
While Rybakina's form has dipped in the wake of off-court issues, she showed she has what it takes to win on the WTA Tour last month, claiming the Strasbourg title before finding Iga Swiatek too strong in the round of 16 at the French Open.
Her efforts in Paris should be viewed as a positive, and she is arguably at her most confident on grass, where her booming serve and powerful groundstrokes tend to do the most damage.
As a proven performer on the surface, Rybakina has the edge over Zheng, who has a good draw but is just 3-8 on grass at WTA Tour level, while Keys could have to negotiate some tough early rounds to set up a possible semi-final with the Kazakhstani.
At bigger odds, the eye is drawn to Amanda Anisimova, who has all the attributes required to shine on this surface, as she demonstrated when reaching the quarter-finals of Wimbledon in 2022, when her run was ended by former champion Simona Halep.
Long considered one of the most talented prospects on the WTA Tour, Anisimova is becoming a more consistent performer, capturing a first WTA 1000 in Doha in February, and rising to a career-high 15th in the world for the start of the grass campaign.
Having emerged with credit after a battling French Open fourth-round loss to Aryna Sabalenka, she arrives at Queen's with an excellent chance of making an impact from a wide-open top half.
