It was with tongue firmly in cheek and a glint in his eye that Cameron Norrie announced himself as the new Scottish number one.

He’s come from outside the world’s top 250 to inside the top 80 in under a year. A rise so rapid that, for the first time in his senior career, Andy Murray is no longer the top-ranked Scot on the tennis tour. So does the triple Grand Slam winner mind the new order of things?

“I’ve not asked him,” Norrie replied. “I was going to have a little dig at him when I was playing him but chose not to. But no, I think he’s going to challenge me soon for my ranking.”

• How I’ve recovered from lowest point – Murray
• I can still win Grand Slams – Murray

Norrie, 22, has firm grounds for holding that opinion. He’s seen Murray up close and personal for the past few days, having been chosen by the former world number one as a practice partner. He’s adamant Murray is choosing the right time to return to the tour, and was impressed with the practice sets they played against each other.

“We played at a great level a couple of days ago and he actually asked me if I thought he was ready or not,” said Norrie. “I told him that he was and he was moving great and hitting the ball well.

“Obviously he hasn’t played any matches but I think he’s ready. It’s just great to have him back and it’s very nice of him to seek me out and just be on court with him again. You can learn so much from him and his professionalism and the way he does things. He’s just a great idol for British tennis in general.”

Quite a transformation then for Norrie, who 12 months ago had never even met Murray.

“It was exactly this time last year that I was here in the Queen’s locker room and he came up to me and my coach and just introduced himself to us,” Norrie explained.

“I just thought it was very humble of him to do that. It was great to meet him; I’d always wanted to meet him. He’s just a very nice guy, down to earth and it’s great just to have him back in general.”

Both Norrie and Murray have been handed tricky first-round assignments at the newly named Fever-Tree Championships. Murray faces Australia’s Nick Kyrgios on Tuesday while Norrie’s first-round match on Monday is against three-time Grand Slam champion Stan Wawrinka.

• Monday’s Queen’s Club schedule of play

‘I’m 100% happy to be claimed as Scottish’

Murray’s main stated aim, however, has been to test his game and his hip, following January’s surgery, by practising with some of the top players. Norrie witnessed first hand the strides the double Wimbledon champion has recently made.

“I hit with him once before, just before Eastbourne last year,” said Norrie. “And he was hitting the ball here just as big as he was then and moving well. He even ended up serving really well in the end. So I feel like his level is there and it’s just going to be a matter of getting matches under his belt and getting a bit of confidence.

“It’s always going to be tough for him coming back but he’s won Grand Slams in the past and he’s been world number one so he’s got the confidence within him to come back and prove to everyone that he can do it again. Let’s just hope his hip holds up. I wish him all the best. It’s just nice to have him around to bounce some ideas off, maybe, if I need something.”

Cosmopolitan is a word that springs to mind when it comes to Norrie.

The 22-year-old was born in South Africa to a Glaswegian father and a Welsh mother. He was raised in New Zealand before going on to play the collegiate tennis circuit in the United States. His father David, however, made sure his allegiance would always remain with Scotland, where he still has family in Aberdeenshire.

“I’m 100% happy to be claimed as Scottish,” Norrie added. “And the new Scottish number one? I’ll take it, for sure. I’ll try to hold on to that as long as I can. We’ll see.”

British number two Cameron Norrie will play three-time Grand Slam winner Stan Wawrinka at Queen’s Club on Monday.

Andy Murray, making his comeback after a year out with a hip injury, plays Australian Nick Kyrgios on Tuesday at the Fever-Tree Championships.

Kyle Edmund, who has replaced Murray as British number one, meets American Ryan Harrison the same day.

Twelve-time major champion Novak Djokovic faces Australian qualifier John Millman, also on Tuesday.

Fifteen of the world’s top 30 male players, plus Murray, Djokovic and Wawrinka, are competing in the west London tournament, although 18-time Slam champion Rafael Nadal and world number four Juan Martin del Potro have withdrawn.

You can follow all the action on the BBC across television, radio and online.

• ‘How I recovered from lowest point’ – Murray’s BBC Sport column
• Murray says he can still win Grand Slams
• Queen’s order of play
• How to follow Queen’s on the BBC

Murray, Djokovic but no Nadal – who else is playing?

Queen’s is set to have the strongest line-up in its 128-year history with 15 of the world’s top 30 taking part.

The tournament is seen as an important marker for players in their build-up to Wimbledon, which starts on 2 July.

It is also an ATP 500 event, the third tier of tournaments on the men’s tour below the Grand Slams and Masters, giving them opportunity to earn a significant number of ranking points.

Former Queen’s champions, Croatia’s 2017 Wimbledon finalist Marin Cilic and reigning ATP World Tour Finals champion Grigor Dimitrov, are among the top-10 players appearing.

Cilic, the top seed, plays 2013 Wimbledon quarter-finalist Fernando Verdasco on Monday.

The first match on Queen’s Centre Court sees highly-rated Canadian teenager Denis Shapovalov play veteran Gilles Muller, a quarter-finalist at Wimbledon last year.

Murray nervous before return

Scot Murray, who has dropped to 157 in the world rankings, has not played competitively since Wimbledon last year and had hip surgery in January.

He admitted he will be nervous when he returns to action at Queen’s where he has won the title a record five times.

“There are a lot of doubts when you’ve not played for a long time,” he said. “I’m expecting to be very nervous when I go back out there.

“Coming back from injury you’re always kind of second guessing yourself. You never know exactly when you’re going to be ready, but I’m looking forward to getting back out there and competing, and hopefully playing well.

“I’ve obviously got lots of great memories from here, from winning the tournament and playing here the first time when I was 18. I’m sure I’ll have the same nerves and stuff as I did all those years ago.”

Djokovic back at Queen’s

Djokovic is playing at the Queen’s Club for the first time in eight years, having suffered injury problems this season.

The former world number one had said he may skip the grass-court season after losing in the French Open quarter-finals to Marco Cecchinato.

But he has now accepted a late wildcard for Queen’s and said it would be “great preparation for Wimbledon”.

The Serb also said he hopes to see Murray, against whom he has played seven Grand Slam finals, return to the top of the game, adding that “tennis misses” him.

Edmund on British ‘buzz’

The tournament sees Kyle Edmund play the British grass-court events as British number one for the first time, having replaced Murray in March.

“Throughout year we travel so much so it is nice to be home and play in front of a home crowd and get that support. It’s a really buzz,” said Edmund, 23, who reached his first Grand Slam semi-final at the Australian Open in January.

“Attention has picked up,” he added. “You get used to it and learn how to deal with it in your own way, but I get on with it and see it is a good problem.

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A furious Johanna Konta lost out to Ashleigh Barty in the final of the Nature Valley Open in Nottingham.

Konta had recovered from 4-1 down in the decider to level at 4-4 but a controversial call allowed Barty go 5-4 ahead.

The Briton got into a heated discussion with the umpire, which seemed to affected her concentration.

She was broken in the next game to give Barty a 6-3 3-6 6-4 win and did not shake the umpire’s hand at the end.

Konta had been seeking her first title since Miami in April 2017 but only managed 52% of her first serves in the opening set with Barty the more solid.

But she got back into the match and levelled it at one set apiece, finally converting her seventh break-point opportunity.

The Briton, who is now ranked 22 in the world after a poor first half of the year, was looking to maintain her momentum in the decider.

However, Barty, ranked five places higher, broke in the fourth game to make it 3-1 before holding serve for 4-1.

It looked like Konta’s chances were disappearing fast but she battled back to make it 4-4 before her emotions boiled over.

The 27-year-old was furious with the umpire for not overruling a Barty shot that looked long as the Australian held for 5-4, saying to the official: “It’s an absolute joke. You’re making decisions that affect our lives. Do you fully understand that?”

Konta, who then had to serve to stay in the match, won only one more point as Barty clinched victory with a backhand pass.

Both players will now be in action at the Nature Valley Classic in Birmingham from Monday with Barty up against a qualifier while Konta will take on two-time Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova.

Three-time Grand Slam champion Andy Murray is set to make his competitive return to action at Queen’s Club this week after almost a year out with a hip injury.

The 31-year-old Briton talks about the decision to have surgery in January, and his recovery, in his regular BBC Sport column.

Moving towards the start line now feels great and I’m really looking forward to playing again. There have been times where I have been practising on the court and not managed to get to the start line.

With sport you play to win but when you are away from something you love doing for almost a year you realise you’re playing because you love it.

I didn’t start playing to win Wimbledon or get to number one in the world. I never believed that was something I was going to do or something I thought about when I was a kid growing up.

I played tennis because I loved it and continued doing that throughout my whole career.

Of course pressure comes as you get older and start to do better but when you step away from the sport for a long time then you look at things a little bit differently.

• Winning Grand Slams still possible – Murray
• Will surgery give Murray a new lease of life?

Emotional Instagram post showed I was hurting

I posted a message on my Instagram page just before the surgery – that was a tough time for me.

A lot of things get written and you don’t always have the opportunity to respond to what has been said.

When, after six months of not competing, you’re still not good enough to be where you want to be and looking like you’re going to have to have surgery, it’s the lowest point you can get to in your professional career.

People might say, “oh, you’ve got it great” – which I’m aware that we do and I’m very lucky I get to play tennis for a living.

But that’s what I’ve been doing since I was a child, and when you’re not able to do something that you love it’s tough.

That was why I posted on Instagram, because at the time I was getting asked lots of questions and I didn’t have all of the answers.

Surgery was the only option

It had been six months since I last played, in the quarter-final at Wimbledon, but I wouldn’t say I gave the hip a fair chance to fully recover until after the US Open.

I was trying to play the US Open at the end of August, which I said at the time was probably a mistake, but after that I did pretty much everything that was recommended by doctors.

I love playing tennis. I miss it a lot

I was rehabbing, trying to get stronger, not spending much time on the court, trying to take a bit of the load off my hip and allow it to calm down. Then I tried to build up a little bit and tried to get ready for Australia.

I was doing lots of really good stuff in the gym but then I wasn’t translating it on to court.

I was still feeling uncomfortable when I was on the court, and then that was when I decided I had to have the surgery.

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