Lleyton Hewitt started his challenge for a record fifth Queen's Club title with a 6-4, 6-4 first round win over Josh Goodall on Monday.
Hewitt, 27, has always been at home on the lush lawns of west London and, even though the Australian was far from his best, he was still too strong for British wildcard Goodall.
Breaks in the third game of the first set and the seventh game of the second set were all it took for Hewitt, who lost to Jo-Wilfried Tsonga at the same stage here last year, to avoid another early exit.
PHOTO: AFP
The 11th seed now faces either Xavier Malisse or Daniel Evans as he tries to pull clear of Andy Roddick, Boris Becker and John McEnroe, who all have four titles here.
Australia’s Chris Guccione won a gruelling contest that stretched over two hours as he finally saw off Lu Yen-hsun of Taiwan 6-4, 6-7 (2/7), 7-5.
Joseph Sirianni made it a hat-trick of Aussie victories as he beat Britain’s Alex Bogdanovic 6-3, 6-3.
Former Australian and US Open champion Marat Safin came from a set down to beat British qualifier James Ward 4-6, 6-1, 6-4.
Safin, 28, was broken in the third game and couldn’t make any inroads on Ward’s serve as the he closed out the set to the delight of the home crowd.
But Safin has always been a capricious figure and, just as soon as he looked set for a limp exit, the former world No.1 one raised his game.
The Russian broke early in the second set and never looked in danger of relinquishing the lead as he took it easily.
He was quickly on top in the final set as well, breaking early again, to go through.
Sebastian Grosjean, twice a Queen’s finalist in 2003 and 2004, defeated South Africa’s Rik de Voest 7-6 (8/6), 6-1 and next plays British No.1 one Andy Murray.
Veteran Swede Jonas Bjorkman will face top seed Nadal after beating Igor Kunitsyn 7-6 (7/3), 4-6, 6-4.
Other victors on Monday included rising Japanse prospect Kei Nishikori, Mario Ancic of Croatia and Serb Janko Tipsarevic.
French Open champion Nadal, reigning Queen’s champion Roddick and Novak Djokovic were among the top seeds given byes into the second round.
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