Hewitt routs Schwank 6-1, 6-0 in 1st round of grass-court tournament at Queen’s Club

Hewitt routs Schwank 6-1, 6-0 at Queen’s Club

LONDON — Former No. 1 Lleyton Hewitt routed Eduardo Schwank of Argentina 6-1, 6-0 on Monday to reach the second round at Queen’s Club.

Hewitt, who won the grass-court Wimbledon warmup from 2000-02 and again in 2006, broke three times in each set and saved the only break point he faced.

The Australian closed it out in 44 minutes with a lobbed winner on his second match point.

“It was good,” Hewitt said. “You’re never exactly sure how you’re going to play and how confident you’re going to be first match on grass. But I came out of the blocks really well and was seeing the ball well and returned extremely well from start to finish.”

American Sam Querrey ousted 12th seeded Frenchman Jeremy Chardy 7-6 (10), 6-4, firing 13 aces.

After games in the first set went with serve, Querrey held off five set points in the tiebreaker before clinching when Chardy double-faulted. A break for 5-4 then left Querrey serving for the match in the second.

“The winner of that breaker was most likely going to go on to win it,” said Querrey. “I felt like I served really well. I was only in trouble one time, and I felt like I returned well too.”

Other first-round winners included 10th-seeded Feliciano Lopez of Spain, Andreas Seppi of Italy and Kristof Vliegen of Belgium.

Lopez beat Robert Kendrick of the United States 7-6 (3), 7-6 (3), while Seppi outlasted Robby Ginepri of the United States 5-7, 7-6 (4), 6-3 to earn a matchup with top-seeded Andy Murray.

Vliegen topped Leonardo Mayer of Argentina 7-6, 6-4 and will next play No. 2 Andy Roddick, who won the tournament from 2003-05.