Dan Evans made a winning start to his campaign at the Nature Valley International in Eastbourne.
The British number three made it 11 wins on grass so far this season by beating higher-ranked Moldovan Radu Albot 7-6 (2) 6-2 and he will play either Pierre-Hugues Herbert or Denis Kudla in round two.
It was revenge for Evans after he narrowly missed out on winning a first ATP Tour title in Delray Beach in February, losing to Albot in the final after holding three match points.
Cameron Norrie will face countryman Kyle Edmund for the first time after an impressive 6-3 7-6 (4) victory over Frenchman Jeremy Chardy in the opening round.
The match was suspended overnight with Norrie 3-0 up in the opening set. He went on to take that but the second was much tighter and the British number two had to save a set point at 5-6 before coming through the tie-break.
There was disappointment for Jay Clarke, who won the first set against Juan Ignacio Londero but eventually went down 6-7 (5) 6-1 6-3.
