Tennis enthusiasts voiced strong criticism against the BBC for failing to provide live coverage of the doubles debut featuring British stars Emma Raducanu and Katie Boulter.
The prominent British pair teamed up for the first time at the Queen`s tournament, which is the initial grass-court event leading up to Wimbledon.
Despite the BBC holding the broadcasting rights for the tournament and the recent excitement surrounding tennis following yesterday`s thrilling French Open final, they chose not to highlight two of Britain`s most popular players. Instead, their coverage focused exclusively on singles matches played on the main show court, now known as the Andy Murray Arena.
While other players, including Sonay Kartal, Jodie Burrage, and two-time Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova, were broadcast live, this meant that the match involving Raducanu and Boulter, scheduled second on Court 1, was overlooked on BBC Two.
Furthermore, the match where they faced Fang-Hsien Wu and Xinyu Jiang was not made available for British tennis fans to watch via either the red button service or BBC iPlayer.
BBC presenter Isa Guha commented: “Regrettably, we won’t be able to show you this match because we’re focused on Andy Murray Arena, but we will be bringing you updates throughout the course of the afternoon.”
However, this explanation did not satisfy frustrated viewers.
One user expressed annoyance: “You have two Brits partnering in the doubles – don’t you think that might have been of interest to British viewers?”
Another angrily stated: “You have the British women 1 and 2 playing together in doubles and you’re not showing it? Make it make sense!! So frustrating!!”
A third person added: “You just showed a clip of Court 1 where Emma and Katie are starting their match; so why not show the match as a second option or one court on iPlayer and one on BBC Two? Very frustrating!”
A fourth viewer complained: “Literally just showed us a clip of it why can’t we watch it?!!!!”
A fifth user was clearly upset: “Absolutely ridiculous you`re not showing Boulter/Raducanu in doubles.”
And a final user queried: “Why isn’t Court 1 on BBC iPlayer though? Can’t watch Boultercanu?”
Boulter and Raducanu ultimately won their match with a score of 6-4, 6-2 in 71 minutes, visibly enjoying their time on court and celebrating their victory with laughter and high-fives in front of the 1,000-seat stand.
This marked only Raducanu`s second professional doubles match on the WTA circuit, and her first win.
When questioned about the possibility of teaming up again at Wimbledon, the former US Open champion played down the idea.
Raducanu, who was pleased to have played without any recurrence of injury issues and sealed the match with a volley, stated: “It’s a spontaneous thing, we’re just trying to do the best we can this week. We thought about it in Madrid, Miami and Paris.”
She added: “Moving to the grass, which is a very different surface, it helps us get a feel of serving, returning and playing some points.”
However, her partner Boulter light-heartedly interjected: “Scrap what she said – we’re going for the Wimbledon title! No, just kidding… we haven’t thought about that.”
She continued: “We both return very well and have great volleys, so if one of us hits a good ball we can capitalise on that. I’m very confident that Emma is going to put the ball away if I hit a good shot.”
World No. 37 Raducanu, who has previously spoken about feeling cautious in public following a stalking incident, is scheduled to compete against Cristina Bucsa in her opening singles match on Tuesday.
Boulter, currently ranked three places higher than Raducanu in the WTA rankings, will face Ajla Tomljanovic.
This lack of live coverage also comes shortly after news emerged that the BBC will be sharing broadcasting rights for the singles finals at Wimbledon with TNT Sports for the next five years.
Image Caption: Emma Raducanu and Katie Boulter played their first competitive doubles match together.
Image Caption: The British pairing beat Fang-Hsien Wu and Xinyu Jiang 6-4 6-2.
Image Caption: Raducanu had only played one WTA doubles match before.
