Summary Lleyton Hewitt beat Michael Russell 4-6, 6-1, 6-3 in the first round at the Queen's Club.
LONDON (AP) - Former No. 1 Lleyton Hewitt rallied past Michael Russell of the United States 4-6, 6-1, 6-3 in the first round at the Queen s Club on Monday.
The Australian has won this Wimbledon warm-up four times as well as the 2001 U.S. Open and 2002 Wimbledon. He has now won 111 matches on grass. Roger Federer leads among current players with 112.
Hewitt sent a forehand into the net to drop the opening set. He ran away with the second set after saving six break points in the second game to lead 2-0. After an early exchange of breaks in the decider, Hewitt broke to lead 5-3.
"It s always tough, the first one obviously on grass," Hewitt said. "It s a bit slippery under foot and (you) don t probably have quite 100 percent in your footing.
"Also, yeah, I just didn t feel like I was serving great. Nothing was sort of ... I didn t have too much rhythm at the start, and the ball was propping a little bit out there as well because it hasn t had a lot of play on it. In the end I found my rhythm a little bit better."
Hewitt will play 10th-seeded Grigor Dimitrov of Bulgaria, who rallied to beat Dudi Sela 4-6, 6-2, 7-6 (4). The Israeli served for the match at 5-4.
The only other seeded player in action was No. 9 Benoit Paire of France, who defeated British qualifier Jamie Baker 7-5, 6-2.
The top eight seeded players receive a bye into the second round.
Andy Murray, the 2009 and 2011 champion, is seeded No. 1. He is followed by Tomas Berdych, who returns to the Queen s Club for the first time since his debut in 2005, and 2009 U.S. Open winner Juan Martin del Potro. Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, the 2011 runner-up, is seeded fourth. Defending champion Marin Cilic, who was awarded the title last year when David Nalbandian was defaulted for violent conduct, is No. 5.
