In the build-up to Queen’s, Cameron Norrie had talked about his long-term ambition to become world No1.
That had looked far fetched during the European clay-court swing when he struggled for his best rhythm, culminating in a third-round exit at the French Open.
He still has some way to go to replace Novak Djokovic at the top of the world order but began his grasscourt season confidently with a 6-4, 7-6 victory over another Serbian in Miomi Kecmanovic.
Aftewards, Norrie said: “It feels good to be back on the grass and be back in London playing. It wasn’t easy to get over the line. It’s always tricky the first match on grass.”
The British No1 was pushed by his opponent but always seemed to have the upper hand, moving well despite taping below his left knee and using all corners of the court well as he ramped up his aggression as the match wore on.
In his first match since Paris, his shot-making was confident from the outset as he immediately broke an opponent, who had been seeded at the past two grand slams, to go 2-0 up.
A poor challenge gave his opponent a break back to love and he again gifted his opponent five break points in all in his next service game. He saved the first three with big serves and a trio of volleys saved the last.
From there, he continually exerted pressure on his opponent, which paid off when Kecmanovic was serving to stay in the set. For Norrie, it was a deserved set win, the far more clinical of the two in converting two of his three break points in contrast to his opponent’s one from six.
The fluctuations of the second set echoed the first. Again Norrie got the early break, a deep forehand down the line giving him a 3-1 lead only for Kecmanovic to break back in the very next game with a lovely half-volley.
Norrie had chances to break in the next game but Kecmanovic held and eventually found himself staying to stay in the match at 5-4 as he had been in the first set.
This time, though, despite being 0-30 down, he did enough to keep the scores level at 5-5.
Kecmanovic again found himself serving to stay in the match at 5-6 but this time found him facing a break point but resisted a barrage of big shots from Norrie to save and force a tiebreak.
All it really did, however, was delay the inevitable as Norrie dialled up the intensity to get two early mini breaks for a 3-0 lead. Kecmanovic fought his way back to 5-6 but could not force a deciding set.
Earlier, Ryan Peniston helped Andy Murray’s cause to be seeded for Wimbledon when beating Ugo Humbert, one of Murray’s rivals for a top-32 ranking ahead of the tournament.
Peniston had enjoyed a great run on the grass last summer with quarter-final berths at both Queen’s and Eastbourne, and he backed that up with a 6-4, 6-2 victory over the highly-rated Humbert, a current top-40 player.
Hopes of a clean sweep of wins by British players on Centre Court at Queen’s were derailed when Seb Korda beat Dan Evans 6-4, 7-5.
