Milos Raonic won an ace-laden first-round clash against Nick Kyrgios on Wednesday at the Aegon Championships to start his partnership with four-time former Queen's Club champion John McEnroe in style. Third seed Raonic hit 20 aces and converted two of his 11 break point opportunities in a 6-7(5), 6-4, 6-4 victory over Kyrgios, who struck 17 aces, in two hours and five minutes. The match had resumed at the start of the third set after it was suspended due to bad light on Monday night. Raonic will next play lucky loser Jiri Vesely in the second round.

John Isner hit 25 aces in beating Juan Martin del Potro 7-6(2), 6-4 in the opening round. Temperamental weather forced two stoppages in the first set. Upon resumption, the players traded service holds until the tie-break, where Isner’s big serve proved to be the difference. The American slammed down his 500th ace of 2016 to arrive at set point, then fired an unplayable second serve to secure the opener.

“Going into this match, I didn't expect [either of us] to win 6-2, 6-2. It's grass court tennis. And especially with how I play, I figured it could be a very close match and it was,” Isner said. “It definitely came down, just as a lot of my matches do, to a few points here or there. I thought I played them pretty well.”

In the second set, Isner saved six break points in increasingly slippery conditions before breaking del Potro at 4-4 and serving out the match at love. The seventh seed will face Gilles Muller in the next round.

“You know, it's not uncommon for everyone to slip on the grass. So I know when I do it, it probably looks pretty goofy but it happens,” Isner, who lost his footing on multiple occasions, said.

Marin Cilic downed Janko Tipsarevic 6-4, 6-2 to move into the quarter-finals. The 2012 champion advanced in 70 minutes and will face Steve Johnson, who beat Adrian Mannarino 4-6, 6-3, 6-4.

Earlier in the day, wild card Kyle Edmund, who is part of the ATP's Next Generation, recorded the biggest match win of his career. The 21-year-old Briton defeated eighth seed and last year's semi-finalist Gilles Simon 6-4, 3-6, 6-1, in a rain-interrupted encounter over one hour and 43 minutes. It was only Edmund's second grass-court win in nine tour-level matches.

Another British wild card Dan Evans came close to becoming the fourth local hope in the second round, but 34-year-old Paul-Henri Mathieu silenced supporters with a 7-6(8), 6-7(6), 6-3 win over two hours and 35 minutes. World No. 92 Evans hit 13 aces, while Mathieu saved seven of nine break points.