LONDON — Lleyton Hewitt suffered a frustrating farewell to Queen's Club as the four-time champion squandered a match point in a 6-7 (5-7), 7-5, 6-2 defeat against South Africa's Kevin Anderson Monday. Hewitt is embarking on a prolonged goodbye tour before retiring after next year's Australian Open and he was hoping for one last hurrah on his final visit to the Wimbledon warmup event.
But the injury-ravaged 34-year-old, making his 16th appearance at a tournament he describes as one of his favorite, is ranked 100 places below the big-serving Anderson and he was unable to bridge that class gap in a hard-fought first round clash.
After failing to serve out the match in the second set, Hewitt allowed Anderson to wriggle out of trouble and the world No. 17 eventually coasted through to a second round tie against French Open champion Stan Wawrinka or Australian youngster Nick Kyrgios.
Only Boris Becker, John McEnroe and Andy Roddick have won Queen's as often as Hewitt, who made his debut here as a brash teenager in 1998 and claimed the last of his titles in 2006.
While his farewell hadn't gone to plan, Hewitt was still given a standing ovation by the packed Center Court crowd, which included his wife Bec and assorted members of his family.
Meanwhile, Richard Gasquet became only the third Frenchman in the Open era to win 400 singles matches after defeating Italian qualifier Simone Bolelli 6-1, 6-2 in the first round.
The world No. 19, who was back in action for the first time since his French Open last-16 exit against Novak Djokovic, joins Yannick Noah (476) and Fabrice Santoro (470) in the select group of Frenchmen to reach 400 victories.
The 28-year-old is one of 13 active players to have won at least 400 matches and his reward for reaching that notable landmark is a second round tie against Canadian third seed Milos Raonic or British wildcard James Ward.
Jimmy Connors, the retired American great, holds the record for most match wins on the men's tour with 1,254.
In two all-Spanish matches, Fernando Verdasco saved three match points before edging Roberto Bautista Agut 3-6, 7-5, 7-6 (4), and Guillermo Garcia-Lopez defeated Pablo Andujar 7-6 (3), 6-2.
Andy Murray, French Open champion Stan Wawrinka and Rafael Nadal are also in the 32-player field.
McHale beats Cornet
In Birmingham, Christina McHale of the United States upset 11th-seeded Alize Cornet of France 4-6, 6-2, 6-2 Monday to reach the second round of the Aegon Classic.
The 23-year-old McHale tumbled out of the top 100 in the rankings from a career-high 24th after contracting mononucleosis two years ago but showed excellent movement on the grass against Cornet, who stunned Serena Williams at Wimbledon last year.
She trailed 0-40 when serving for the match, but recovered to clinch the win. She said: "I'm very glad I closed it out then, because we always have long battles."
Ninth-seeded Garbine Muguruza also lost 6-3, 6-1 to Magdalena Rybarikova of Slovakia, who won the title here six years ago.
Top-seeded Simona Halep has a bye into the second round, where she'll face local wild-card entry Naomi Broady. — Agencies
