Cameron Norrie kicks off grass-court season with opening win at Queen's against Miomir Kecmanovic
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Updated 19/06/2023 at 19:35 GMT+1
Britain's Cameron Norrie made his grass-court bow for the 2023 season when he took on Serbian Miomir Kecmanovic on Monday afternoon at Queen's in London. Norrie is looking to prepare for Wimbledon, which starts in July, and he got a decent work out against the Serb, but he was nonetheless able to secure a straight-sets victory to reach the last 16.
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Video credit: SNTV
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.
The 27-year-old and his younger opponent were looking to Queen’s for experience on grass ahead of next month’s Wimbledon Grand Slam, but it was Norrie who will get at least one more match under his belt after he took the win.
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.
Another Briton, 27-year-old Ryan Peniston, defeated world No. 37 Ugo Humbert 6-4 6-2. He and Norrie will play their respective last-16 matches on Thursday.
There was one British casualty, though, as Dan Evans crashed out in the opening round with a 6-4 7-5 defeat to Sebastian Korda.
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.
At the Halle Open in Germany, world No. 5 Stefanos Tsitsipas reached the last 16 at the Owl Arena with a hard-fought 6-7(6) 6-4 7-6(3) victory over Gregoire Barrere.
Top seed Daniil Medvedev safely navigated his opening match against qualifier Marcos Giron, winning 6-4 6-3 to set up a last-16 clash with Laslo Djere.
The last-16 matches kick off on Wednesday.
Wimbledon starts on July 3.
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