33-year-old British journeywoman Heather Watson has had to do it the hard way this week. Due to rain delays, Watson had to play two qualifying matches yesterday, beating Shibahara in three sets before crushing Sonmez 6-0, 6-3.
2025 WTA Tour
WTA 500
Queen’s Club Championships
The Queen’s Club, London, United Kingdom (Outdoor Grass)
Selected Round of 32 Matches- 10th June
Heather Watson 1.8 vs Yulia Putintseva 0.42
The 33-year-old will be looking for a strong domestic grass-court campaign after a shocking start to the season. She failed to progress beyond the qualifying in her first five tour-level events. She did get a little bump at lower-tier level, reaching the semifinals at the WTA 125 Puerto Vallarta Open. The big-serving Brit finally won her first tour-level match of the season at last week’s Birmingham Classic, thrashing Olivia Gadecki before losing to Jessika Ponchet in the round of 16. Watson is a four-time WTA singles champion (though she won her last title at the 2020 Abierto Mexicano). Watson has shown some pedigree on the grass, posting a career-best Grand Slam 4th round finish at the 2022 Wimbledon Championships. She won the mixed doubles’ Wimbledon crown back in 2016 and will look to use her big serve and array of slices to pick up her 3rd straight win of the week.
30-year-old Kazakh Yulia Putintseva will be looking to kickstart her flagging campaign this week. The tenacious baseliner enjoyed a mini resurgence last season and seemed to have carried that form into this year, reaching the semifinals in Adelaide prior to a 3rd round run at the Aussie Open (she briefly snuck into the top 20 for the first time in her career). But the Kazakh went into a significant slump after Melbourne, going 2-9 in her subsequent nine events. She bounced back somewhat at Roland Garros, going down to eventual semifinalist Mirra Andreeva in the 3rd round. Putintseva enjoyed a stellar 2024 grass-court campaign, winning a maiden grass-court title in Birmingham while also reaching the 4th round of the Wimbledon Championships. Putintseva’s aggressive, in-your-face style is well suited to these conditions.
The Verdict: Watson to win in three sets at 5.2- Watson leads the head-to-head 3-2, winning their only previous grass-court meeting at the 2023 Eastbourne event (Putintseva withdrew in the decisive set). I think Watson’s superior head-to-head record makes her an appealing underdog for this match. She will disrupt the arch-baseliner with her use of slice and crosscourt angles.
