TENNIS fans slammed the BBC for snubbing live coverage of Emma Raducanu and Katie Boulter’s doubles debut.
The all-star British duo teamed up for the first time at Queen’s in the opening grass-court event ahead of Wimbledon.
But despite the BBC holding the rights to the tournament and the euphoria around tennis after yesterday’s epic French Open final, they opted against spotlighting two of GB’s biggest names and instead only showed the singles action on the main show court - now called the Andy Murray Arena.
While Sonay Kartal, Jodie Burrage and two-time Wimbledon champ Petra Kvitova were live on TV, that meant that and Boulter - second up on Court 1 - were overlooked on BBC Two.
And their match against Fang-Hsien Wu and Xinyu Jiang was not available for British fans to watch on either the red button or iPlayer.
BBC presenter Isa Guha said: “Unfortunately, we won’t be able to show you this match because we’re focused onAndy MurrayArena, but we will be bringing you updates throughout the course of the afternoon.”;
But wannabe viewers were not happy.
One moaned: “Errrrr you’ve got two Brits linking up in the doubles - don’t you think that might have been of an interest to the British viewers?”;
Another blasted: “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 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 complained: “Literally just showed us a clip of it why can’t we watch it?!!!!”;
A fifth fumed: “Absolutely ridiculous you’re not showing Boulter/Raducanu in doubles.”;
And a final user typed: “Why isn’t Court 1 on BBC iPlayer though? Can’t watch Boultercanu?”;
and Raducanu - nicknamed Boulteranu by some on social media - ran out 6-4 6-2 winners in 71 minutes, laughing and high-fiving their way to victory in joyful scenes in front of the 1,000-seater stand.
The match was Raducanu’s second WTA doubles match of her career - and a first win.
Quizzed if they would team up again at , the former US Open champion downplayed their ambitions.
as she ended the match with a volley - insisted: “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.
“Moving to the grass, which is a very different surface, it helps us get a feel of serving, returning and playing some points.”;
But partner Boulter interjected: “Scrap what she said - we’re going for the Wimbledon title!
“No, just kidding... we haven’t thought about that.
“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 No37 Raducanu - who - faces Cristina Bucsa in her opening singles match on Tuesday.
Boulter, three places higher than her partner in the WTA rankings, takes on Ajla Tomljanovic.
SunSport has contacted the BBC for comment on the snub, which comes after news that the for the next five years.
