Cameron Norrie kicks off grass-court season with opening win at Queen’s against Miomir Kecmanovic

Cameron Norrie started his grass-court season with a 6-4 7-6 (7-5) win over Miomir Kecmanovic to advance to the last 16 at Queen’s.

Playing his first match since losing in the third round of the French Open, former Queen’s runner-up Norrie broke Kecmanovic three times on his way to victory.

The British No. 1 will play Jordan Thompson or Milos Raonic next.

Kecmanovic, 23, is ranked at No. 40 in the world, but so far in 2023 he has had some impressive performances outside of the Grand Slams.

In February he reached the final at Delray Beach before losing to Taylor Fritz, and lost to Casper Ruud in the final at Estoril.

More recently he reached the finals of Banja Luka, so he approaches the grass season in decent form.

Norrie is ranked No. 13 and his brightest moment of the year was on clay when he beat Carlos Alcaraz to win the Rio Open.

Norrie’s service game was just a little more resilient under pressure, and he fought to a 6-4 win in the first set.

In the second set, Norrie was unable to get away from Kecmanovic so easily and the match went to a tie-break.

There Norrie looked to be wrapping things up with a 6-1 advantage, but a brief flurry of resistance eventually him take the tie-break 7-5.

Andy Murray plays his opening match at Queen’s on Tuesday against seventh seed Alex de Minaur.

Murray, 36, has won 10 matches in a row on grass heading into the event, where he is a five-time champion.

Wimbledon starts on July 3.