Felix-Auger-Aliassime

LONDON — Canada’s Felix Auger-Aliassime continued his strong start to the grass-court season with a 6-4, 6-4 win over Bulgaria’s Grigor Dimitrov in the first round of the Queen’s Club tournament on Thursday.

The No. 8 seed from Montreal had 15 aces (Dimitrov had six) and won 85 per cent of his points on first serve.

Auger-Aliassime, 18, is coming off a run to the final at the Stuttgart Open, the first grass-court tournament of the season.

The win over world No. 45 Dimitrov looks good on the Canadian’s resume. Dimitrov reached a career-high of No. 3 in November 2017.

Because of rain earlier in the week, Auger-Aliassime was scheduled to be back on the court later Thursday for a second-round match against Australia’s Nick Kyrgios.

No. 6 seed Milos Raonic of Thornhill, Ont., also was slated for a second-round match later Thursday against qualifier Aljaz Bedene of Slovenia.