ATP Tour - Round-up: Hewitt downs Brit at Queen's

Eurosport - Tue, 10 Jun 11:01:00 2008

TENNIS Lleyton Hewitt of Australia returns the ball to Britain's Joshua Goodall during their first round singles match at the tennis tournament at Queen's Club - 0

The west London ATP tournament is a traditional warm-up for Wimbledon and its slick green courts provide a sharp contrast to the heavy pace of the European clay season which culminated on Sunday with the men's French Open final.

Hewitt, who reached the third round in Paris after several weeks sidelined with a hip injury, was not caught out as he had been last year when as champion he lost in the second round to qualifier Jo-Wilfried Tsonga.

Playing well within himself, the 11th seed waited for his moment in each set - the third game of the first and seventh of the second - to break the serve of the 274th-ranked Briton and coast home.

As well as in 2006, the combative Australian won the Queen's title in 2000, 2001 and 2002, the year he went on to win Wimbledon becoming the last man to do so before Roger Federer's domination began.

Hewitt, 27, said he was still not 100 percent fit and would probably not have returned to competition so soon had it not been for the French Open and the grass season.

"I'm still struggling a little bit with the hip injury," he said. "I would have liked to have got the injury right before I came back but I don't like to miss the majors.

"I love this month of the year."

Lofty Croatians Mario Ancic and Marin Cilic, both 6'4" tall, enjoyed their first foray on to the grass, Ancic beating Ecuador's Nicolas Lapentti 7-5 6-3 and Cilic overcoming Austrian Jurgen Meltzer 7-6 7-6.

British number seven James Ward put in a fantastic performance against former world number one Marat Safin before finally falling to a 4-6 6-1 6-4 defeat.

Safin, known for his often erratic form and mood swings on court, blamed the surface change for a wild and error-strewn first set against 21-year-old Ward, ranked 488 in the world.

"He has played in qualifying. He knows how to play on grass. So for him it was a little bit easier and in the first set I was nervous," said the Russian, whose ranking after a series of injuries now stands at 76.

However, it was a disappointing day for Alex Bogdanovic. The British number two reached the third round here last season but will now drop down the rankings after falling 6-3 6-3 in the first round to Australian Joseph Sirianni.

Another Australian Chris Guccione, American Robby Ginepri and Latvia's Ernests Gulbis booked places in the second round as did ninth-seeded Spaniard Fernando Verdasco whose opponent Lee Hyung-Taik retired with an injured left knee.

Top seed Rafael Nadal, who won a fourth French Open crown in a row on Sunday, Australian Open champion Novak Djokovic, seeded two, and six other seeds have byes into the second round.

British number one Andy Murray and Venezuelan Daniel Vallverdu defeated Frenchmen Richard Gasquet and Nicolas Mahut 4-6 7-5 (10-4) in the doubles draw.

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Reuters

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    From sue.elee, on Mon 9 Jun 10:37AM

  13. well.. he needs to impress me on grass coz he needs to show he can reach semi-finals of grand slam tournaments to show he has wot it takes... anyway.. he nds to get to quarters first....or at least

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