ATP Tour

Rune makes fast start in Queen's Club opener

Holger Rune earned his first grass-court win of the season on Monday at the HSBC Championships, where he downed Australian lucky loser Christopher O’Connell 6-3, 6-4.

The Dane reached the semi-finals at The Queen’s Club in 2023 and looked comfortable on the London lawns for large periods of his 78-minute win against O’Connell. The 22-year-old saved all three break points he faced and won 60 per cent of points on the Australian’s second serve, according to Infosys ATP Stats.

The fourth seed Rune has won 10 of his past 11 matches on grass against players outside the Top 20 in the PIF ATP Rankings and will hope to maintain that record when he takes on Gael Monfils or Mackenzie McDonald in the second round.

Earlier, Daniel Evans defeated seventh seed Frances Tiafoe 7-5, 6-2 to earn the biggest win of his season. The British wild card had not won a match at The Queen’s Club since 2021 but troubled Tiafoe with his backhand slice and quick net play to advance after one hour and 36 minutes.

Evans improved to 4-6 in his Lexus ATP Head2Head series with Tiafoe and will next play Brandon Nakashima or Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard. Roberto Bautista Agut was also a Day 1 winner in the English capital. The Spaniard beat Nuno Borges 6-7(6), 7-5, 6-4.

#NextGenATP Czech Jakub Mensik made a winning start on debut at The Queen's Club, defeating former finalist Cameron Norrie 7-6(6), 1-6, 6-1. The 19-year-old, who won the ATP Masters 1000 title in Miami in March, struck 20 aces en route to a two-hour, two-minute triumph against British lefty Norrie.

Mensik is the second teenager alongside Jack Draper to earn a main draw win at the ATP 500 grass-court event this decade. The eighth seed plays Bautista Agut in the second round.