LONDON (AFP) - Lleyton Hewitt started his challenge for a record fifth Queen's Club title with a 6-4, 6-4 first round win over Josh Goodall on Monday.

Hewitt, 27, has always been at home on the lush lawns of west London and, even though the Australian was far from his best, he was still too strong for British wildcard Goodall.

Breaks in the third game of the first set and the seventh game of the second set were all it took for Hewitt, who lost to Jo-Wilfried Tsonga at the same stage here last year, to avoid another early exit.

The 11th seed now faces either Xavier Malisse or Daniel Evans as he tries to pull clear of Andy Roddick, Boris Becker and John McEnroe, who all have four titles here.

Australia's Chris Guccione won a gruelling contest that stretched over two hours as he finally saw off Yen-Hsun Lu of Chinese Taipei 6-4, 6-7 (2/7), 7-5.

Joseph Sirianni made it a hat-trick of Australian victories as he beat Britain's Alex Bogdanovic 6-3, 6-3.

Former Australian and US Open champion Marat Safin came from a set down to beat British qualifier James Ward 4-6, 6-1, 6-4.

Safin, 28, was broken in the third game and couldn't make any inroads on Ward's serve as the he closed out the set to the delight of the home crowd.

But Safin has always been a capricious figure and, just as soon as he looked set for a limp exit, the former world number one raised his game.

The Russian broke early in the second set and never looked in danger of relinquishing the lead as he took it easily.

He was quickly on top in the final set as well, breaking early again, to go through to meet either Fernando Gonzalez or Richard Bloomfield.

Safin said: "I was nervous a little bit because he started well, but then I turned it around in the second set and played good tennis.

"It takes time to get used to grass. I don't mind if that happens at the end of my career. I've always wanted to play well here."

Sebastian Grosjean, twice a Queen's finalist in 2003 and 2004, defeated South Africa's Rik de Voest 7-6 (8/6), 6-1 and next plays British number one Andy Murray.

Veteran Swede Jonas Bjorkman will face top seed Nadal after beating Igor Kunitsyn 7-6 (7/3), 4-6, 6-4.

French Open champion Nadal, reigning Queen's champion Roddick and Novak Djokovic were among the top seeds given byes into the second round.

So there was an opportunity for the pre-Wimbledon tournament's lesser lights to take centre-stage.

Japan's Kei Nishikori seized the spotlight as he made a winning Queen's debut with an impressive 2-6, 6-4, 6-2 victory over Alejandro Falla.

Nishikori is rapidly emerging as the best Japanese prospect for over a decade and he underlined that status to set up a second round clash against Sam Querrey or Olivier Patience.

The 18-year-old, ranked 113th, lost the first set but refused to surrender and took the second set when he converted the third of three set points on the Colombian's serve.

That gave him the confidence to open up and he put Falla on the back foot in the third set. The decisive break came in the sixth game as he moved 4-2 ahead and he soon closed out the tie.

Croatia's Mario Ancic showed his grass-court pedigree as he cruised past Nicolas Lapentti 7-5, 6-3.

The big-serving Croat now faces ninth seed Fernando Verdasco, who benefited from Hyung-Taik Lee's premature exit.

Lee, 32, suffered an injury to his left knee that forced the Korean to retire at 5-3 down in the first set.

Janko Tipsarevic, the 13th seed, came through against Ivan Navarro 7-6 (7/2), 6-4.

Croatian Marin Cilic beat Austria's Jurgen Melzer 7-6 (7/2), 7-6 (7/5) and plays seventh seed Paul-Henri Mathieu next.

Latvian teenager Ernest Gulbis, fresh from a French Open quarter-final appearance, defeated Kristof Vliegen 6-4, 7-5.

Robby Ginepri beat Vince Spadea 6-4, 7-6 (7/4) to set up a second round tie against Roddick, while Roko Karanusic meets Djokovic after beating Flavio Cipolla 6-4, 6-3.

Viktor Troicki beat Dudi Sela 6-4, 6-4 and meets fourth seed David Nalbandian in the second round.