Hewitt eyes fifth Queen's title
Lleyton Hewitt begins his push toward recapturing Wimbledon glory when he takes to the grass at Queen's with a record fifth title in his sights.
But sixth seed Hewitt, who won the title at Barons Court in West London from 2000-02 and last year, is keeping a cool head about his prospects of making history.
"It would be nice to win it for a fifth time, but that's a long way away," Hewitt told the tournament website.
"At the moment I'm trying to focus on getting off to a good start, and I feel like I get better and better as the tournament goes on."
Hewitt, who had a first-round bye, will meet French qualifier Jo-Wilfried Tsonga on Wednesday night (AEST).
Tsonga won the Surbiton Trophy last week and beat his Queen's first-round opponent, Kristian Pless of Denmark, in straights sets.
Beyond that for Hewitt, a potential third-round meeting against his good friend and doubles partner for this tournament - Tim Henman - looms.
"He's a tough player for anyone to play against, especially on this surface and playing at home here in London," Hewitt said.
"If it comes off, it's great practice for both of us going into Wimbledon in a couple of weeks' time and it definitely wouldn't be worthy of a third-round match, that's for sure."
Hewitt beat Henman in three sets in the Queen's semi-finals last year.
Meanwhile, the other Australian in the singles draw, Chris Guccione, will be in action against 14th-seeded Frenchman Arnaud Clement, who is ranked 55 places higher than Guccione at No.43.
Guccione beat Italian Andreas Seppi 7-6 (7-4) 6-4 in the first round.
The 1.98-metre Victorian defeated Clement, the 2001 Australian Open runner-up, in a tight match in Adelaide earlier this year 7-6 (7-4) 7-6 (7-5).
"He's a great player, he's made the final of the Aussie Open and a great returner so I'm going to have to play pretty well to beat him," said Guccione, who has been working hard on his game since bowing out in the first round of the French Open.
"The biggest thing is breaking serve for me," he added.
"If I can break serve two or three times a match, especially on grass, I'm not going to lose too many matches against many players."
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