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Tsonga sends champ Hewitt packing

Lleyton Hewitt returns the ball to Jo-Wilfried Tsonga during the Queen's tennis tournament in London on Wednesday. Photo: AFP

Defending champion Lleyton Hewitt was sent crashing out of Queen's by French qualifier Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in the second round on Wednesday.

Hewitt was bidding for a record fifth singles crown at the traditional Wimbledon warm-up, but Tsonga, ranked 121st in the world, pulled off a stunning upset as be beat the Australian 7-6 (7/5), 7-6 (7/2).

Tsonga, 22, came into the tournament in excellent form, having won challenger titles in Surbiton and Lanzarote.

Hewitt, a former Wimbledon champion, would still have expected to emerge unscathed, but quickly found he wasn't going to have it all his own way.

Tsonga matched his supposedly superior opponent throughout a tight first set and held his nerve impressively to win the tie-break.

There was no sign of Tsonga letting his guard down after that success. He kept Hewitt pinned back with some powerful ground-strokes and the Australian became increasingly frustrated.

He cracked in the 10th game as Tsonga broke to earn a chance to serve for the match, but he finally showed a brief moment of fragility as Hewitt quickly broke back to send the set to a tie-break.

It was only a temporary respite for Hewitt though. Songa raced into the lead in the tie-break and sealed a memorable triumph with an emphatic over-head smash.

French Open champion Rafael Nadal picked up where he left off in Paris as he cruised past Juan Martin del Potro to reach the third round.

Nadal, the top seed, was back in action just three days after winning his third consecutive Roland Garros title and the Spaniard was too strong for his teenage opponent, winning 6-4, 6-4.

The world No. 2, who will now face Max Mirnyi after the Belarusian beat Gael Monfils 6-7, 6-2, 7-5, is most at home on clay courts, but his relentlessly aggressive approach means he can bully opponents on grass as well.

He was able to subdue del Potro, 18, after the Argentine, who had shown plenty of potential by beating former Australian Open champion Thomas Johansson in the previous round, gave him a testing start.

It took Nadal until the eighth game to break del Potro's serve, but after that he was firmly in control. He served out the first set and broke in the opening game of the next.

That was enough to keep del Potro at arms' length and he was able to hold serve for the rest of the set to go through.

Novak Djokovic, the fourth seed, clinched a hard-fought 3-6, 6-3, 6-2 victory over Robert Kendrick.

Djokovic arrived in London bursting with confidence after reaching the French Open semi-finals, the best grand slam performance of his career, and will now face France's 14th seed Arnaud Clement, who coasted past Australian Chris Guccione 6-4, 6-4.

Kendrick was unfortunate that he suffered a knee injury midway through the second set that restricted his movement. But Djokovic believes he can win Wimbledon and said: "I've been asked if I see myself as a Grand Slam winner and the honest answer is I dream of it. My biggest dream is to win Wimbledon because it is the most traditional Grand Slam."

"There are a lot of expectations now because I am a young player coming up, but I am one of the most consistent players this year. I've played well on all surfaces and I'm coming to England with a lot of confidence," he said.

No. 3 seed Fernando Gonzalez won a thrilling battle with Serbia's Janko Tipsarevic 7-6, 4-6, 7-6 and now faces Robby Ginepri, who beat Florent Serra 6-4, 7-6.

Marat Safin was level at one set all and 4-4 with Sebastien Grosjean when ran forced the suspension of the match, which was to be finished yesterday.

Alex Bogdanovic won his battle of Britain against Jamie Baker to set up a dream third round meeting with Andy Roddick, the world No. 5.

Bogdanovic, a wild card entry ranked 117th, has been regarded as a talented, yet under-achieving player for too long, but he showed plenty of resilience to edge past Baker 4-6, 7-6, 6-3 after being a set and a break down.
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