Second seed Kevin Anderson came from a set down to beat Britain’s Cameron Norrie 4-6 7-6 (7-5) 6-4 in the opening round of the Fever-Tree Championships at Queen’s Club in London.

The South African, who reached the 2018 final at Wimbledon, has had an injury-hit season because of an elbow problem.

Norrie, 23, lost the second set on a tie-break and then had his serve broken in the fifth game of the deciding set.

“Cameron is a tough opponent and it was a very good match,” said Anderson, 33.

“It feels fantastic to be back. It’s always difficult to miss tournaments, it’s been a tough year, but there has been a lot of time and effort put in to get me back out there.

“I’m really pleased with how I served. It feels good now, and it [his elbow] held up well today with a long three-set match. I found a nice rhythm and on the grass that helps.”

Anderson will play Gilles Simon next after the French world number 38 beat British qualifier James Ward 3-6 6-3 7-6 (7-2) in an entertaining match.

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Norrie is ranked 49th in the world, 41 places below his opponent and put in a good performance against his 6ft 8in opponent.

“Kevin served unbelievable, as I expected he would, but I managed to save a lot of break points today and I was really happy with my mentality and how concentrated and how focused I stayed, especially on the big points,” Norrie said.

“I knew there were going to a couple of points in the match and he managed to win them. He served great in the tie-break and in the third set he was flawless.”

However, Anderson served superbly in the deciding set, only losing one point on his serve, as he took the victory.

‘One heck of a performance’ – analysis

John Lloyd, former Great Britain Davis Cup captain on BBC Two

Cameron played really well. Credit to Kevin Anderson, who only lost one point on his serve in that last set.

Cameron looks a total professional and looks like he belongs in this company. I thought he put in one heck of performance and hopefully he starts to get some decent draws.

Wins for Medvedev and Cilic

Russia’s Daniil Medvedev and Croatia’s Marin Cilic both progressed on the opening day of the tournament.

Fourth seed Medvedev gained a routine 6-2 6-4 win over Spain’s Fernando Verdasco before Cilic, the 2018 winner, saw off the challenge of Chile’s Cristian Garin by a 6-1 7-6 (7-5) margin.

World number six Stefanos Tsitsipas is the top seed and plays Britain’s Kyle Edmund on Tuesday.

Fellow Britons Jay Clarke and Dan Evans also play on Tuesday, against Lucas Pouille of France and Switzerland’s Stan Wawrinka respectively.

Tuesday’s order of play

Centre court (from 12:00 BST): Stan Wawrinka (Sui, 7) v Dan Evans (GB), Juan Martin del Potro (Arg, 3) v Denis Shapovalov (Can), Stefanos Tsitsipas (Gre, 1) v Kyle Edmund (GB), Grigor Dimitrov (Bul) v Felix Auger-Aliassime (Can, 8).

Court 1 (from 12:00 BST): Jay Clarke (GB) v Lucas Pouille (Fra), Marton Fucsovics (Hun) v Feliciano Lopez (Esp), Marco Cecchinato (Ita) v Milos Raonic (Cro, 6), Nick Kyrgios (Aus) v Adrian Mannarino (Fra).

There will be live coverage on BBC Red Button and the BBC Sport website from 12:00 BST, with live coverage on BBC Two from 13:00 BST.