Hewitt's Queens farewell ends in defeat

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 yesterday.

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 warm-up event.

But the injury-ravaged 34-year-old, making his 16th appearance at a tournament he describes as one of his favourites, 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 number 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.

Despite his success in this manicured corner of west London, the most recent of Hewitt's two Grand Slam titles came way back in 2002 at Wimbledon and he has spent the latter part of his career battling to overcome a series of debilitating injuries, including having a metal plate inserted into the toe of his left foot.

His ranking has slipped down to 117 as a result and a fifth defeat in his six matches in 2015 suggests he is limping rather than sprinting towards his career finish line.

Granted a wildcard by nostalgic tournament organisers, Hewitt did his best to roll back the years and, although he couldn't convert five break points in the first set, he did just enough to take the tie-break.