British number one Katie Boulter battled through her grass court singles season opener to claim a 7-6 (4) 1-6 6-4 victory over Australian qualifier Ajla Tomljanovic at Queen’s.

The 28-year-old, who secured a doubles victory alongside compatriot Emma Raducanu on Monday, was broken in her opening game, but found herself in a position to serve for the set after taking a 5-3 advantage.

But Tomljanovic immediately broke back, eventually forcing an opening set tiebreak in which she was edged out by an emphatic winner from Boulter.

Tomljanovic held the first game of the second set before Boulter, who struggled with her first serves, bounced back from a pair of double faults to make it 1-1.

The qualifier then seized control, winning five straight games to force a deciding set, and made it six games in a row when she claimed the first game of the third.

Boulter began to swing the contest in her favour, breaking Tomljanovic’s serve three times to make it 5-4 and, with the Australian serving to stay in it, digging deep to see herself through after nearly two-and-a-half hours.

The WTA 500 event marks the first time in 52 years Queen’s has hosted women’s tennis.

“When I walked out it actually surpassed what I thought it would feel like when I kind of imagined it,” said Boulter, after sealing the win at the newly-christened Andy Murray Arena.

“That was really nice, and it was great to see that there were loads of people here today watching and supporting, and that actually just means a lot to me as a person and a player, and I know it does to a lot of the girls who are here and fighting and working their butts off.”

Boulter has sat in the stands here before watching fiancee Alex de Minaur, who was in attendance, and confessed the vice versa initially felt “weird.”

“I feel like I had a lot of emotions today,” she added. “I think it’s very easy to get caught up in just trying to get your first grass court match, also coming to such an historic venue as well, which holds a lot of purpose and a lot of familiar feelings when I’ve come here before.

“I’m mostly grateful to be here and to be playing this tournament, and hopefully I can just be here for a bit longer. ”

Earlier, Heather Watson set up a second-round meeting with fourth seed and former Wimbledon champion Elena Rybakina after upsetting world number 27 Yulia Putintseva, 107 places above her in the rankings, 6-4 6-3.

Former British number one Watson won all four of her break points to see off her Kazakh opponent in an hour and 22 minutes.