Gritty Hewitt gets past Russell to end lean run

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Lleyton Hewitt admitted he was relieved to be back on his favourite grass court as the Australian ended his losing streak with a 4-6, 6-1, 6-3 victory over America’s Michael Russell in the first round at Queen’s Club on Monday.
Hewitt is a four-time champion at the pre-Wimbledon warm-up event, but thoughts of a record fifth crown were some way from the former world number one’s thoughts as he arrived in west London.
The 32-year-old is well into the twilight of his career and his lowly 82nd position in the world rankings reflects that diminished status.
Hewitt’s first round defeat at the French Open, when he squandered a two-set lead against Gilles Simon, was his fourth successive defeat and he hadn’t tasted victory since the first round of the Miami Masters back in March.
But the former Wimbledon champion put an end to that depressing sequence with a gritty win over Russell to set up a second round clash against Bulgarian 10th seed Grigor Dimitrov.
“It’s one of my favourite events. I have always enjoyed getting off the clay anyway and onto the grass,” Hewitt said.
“I have had such a good record here. Most times it’s taken pretty good players to beat me here.
“The first game back on grass is always tough but in the end I found my rhythm a little bit better.”
After producing a nervous first set, Hewitt responded well and broke twice early in the second set to level the match.
Hewitt appeared to have taken complete control with a break in the second game of the deciding set.
A double fault from the Australian gave Russell an instant break back.
But Hewitt landed the knockout blow when a wayward forehand from the American gifted him a 5-3 lead, which he immediately capitalised on by serving out the match.
It was the kind of hard-fought battle that Hewitt has always relished and he insisted he has no immediate thoughts of retiring because he loves competing on the big stage.
“I still enjoy the big tournaments, obviously Wimbledon and the Australian Open are two of my favourite tournaments,” he said.
“I don’t know how long I’ll play for,” he added.