Norrie Opens Grass Season With Win At Queen’s Club

Cameron Norrie began his Cinch Championships campaign with a dominant performance on Monday, moving past Serbian Miomir Kecmanovic 6-4, 7-6(5) to reach the second round in London.

Norrie was competing in his first match on the surface since last July, when he lost against Novak Djokovic in the Wimbledon semi-finals. The fifth seed took little time to adjust, though, causing Kecmanovic problems with his flat groundstrokes.

The 27-year-old moved freely in front of a packed home crowd and sealed his 30th tour-level win of the season on his fifth match point, advancing after 85 minutes. Norrie will next face Australian Jordan Thompson or Canadian Milos Raonic, who returned to the Tour in Stuttgart last week.

“It was a tight couple of sets. I made it a bit difficult for myself but that is grass-court tennis,” Norrie said. “If you are not playing point for point you can make it difficult for yourself. I think it helped that I have played on this court before and I know what it is like on the first day, it can be quite slippery. I was trying to find good width and make him move and stay on top.”

Norrie has fond memories of playing at The Queen’s Club, having advanced to the championship match in 2021.

“It feels good,” Norrie said when asked about being back on grass. “I came straight here after Paris. I have had a couple of weeks preparation. Today’s match brought back a lot of good memories from last year on the grass.”

In other first-round action, British wild card Ryan Peniston defeated Ugo Humbert 6-4, 6-2. Peniston advanced to the quarter-finals at the ATP 500 event, with all five of his tour-level wins prior to Monday coming during the 2022 grass-court season. The 27-year-old next meets second seed Holger Rune or American Maxime Cressy.