"It's very important to serve big" - Shapovalov on tight victory in opening match at Queen's

In his first grass-court match of the season, Denis Shapovalov was made to work for his opening round victory on Tuesday evening at the cinch Championships.

Facing Australian qualifier Aleksandar Vukic, the second seed had to save four set points to grind out a 7-6(6) 7-6(6) victory.

"Definitely not an easy, breezy match," Shapovalov said after the match. "Super happy to be back here and get the win. I've got so many great memories over here at Queen's. it's so nice to see you fans back out here and I really appreciated the support today."

The Canadian hit an impressive 20 aces, while winning 83% of his total service points. After the match, he admitted that this was key to him escaping with the victory.

"Any time of the grass-court season, it's super tough to get a rhythm, so it's very important to serve big," Shapovalov said. "I think we both just served amazing today. I feel obviously very lucky to win this match today. It could have gone either way, so I'm very, very proud of myself."

The World No.14 next faces two-time champion Feliciano Lopez, as the Spaniard defeated Illya Marchenko to advance to the second round.