Hewitt's fitness worry

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Australian Lleyton Hewitt is in a race against time to be fit for next week's Wimbledon after retiring from his first round match at the AEGON International on Tuesday.

Hewitt was trailing 6-2 3-0 to Belgian Olivier Rochus when he pulled the pin citing the foot injury that has plagued much of his season to date.

The former world No.1 had foot surgery following the Australian Open earlier this year and aggravated his ankle on his return to action in Halle last week.

"It was touch and go whether I'd be able to play here anyway. I slipped over last week at the end of the first set against (Philipp) Kohlschreiber and stirred up the foot that I had surgery on," he said.

"Since then I've just been trying to get treatment. I've been talking with the doctors here."

"It just hasn't quite improved as much as I would have liked by today, but I wanted to come out and try anyway. I obviously have to focus on Wimbledon now next week."

Hewitt was clearly struggling against Rochus, committing an uncharacteristic 22 unforced errors in the brief time he was out on court.

The 30-year-old has slipped to 130th in the world - his lowest ranking in 13 years.

"It's a little bit frustrating because I'm actually quite happy with my ball striking at the moment, which is frustrating because my movement is such a big part of my game," said Hewitt.

"That's the most frustrating thing, I guess more frustrating when you feel or you know you've done all the right things, as well, to try and put yourself in a position."

"This is one of my favorite times of the year playing these grass court tournaments, as well, so to not be 100 percent and going out there still trying to compete isn't that easy mentally, either."

Meanwhile, top seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga cruised into the second round with a straight-sets win over Denis Istomin.

Uzbek Istomin saved 14 of 18 break points he conceded at the Devonshire Park Lawn Tennis Club, but could only break the world number 19 Frenchman once from six chances.

Next up for Tsonga is a second-round match against Czech Radek Stepanek at the joint ATP/WTA event in Eastbourne.

In other matches, German qualifier Rainer Schuettler knocked out Ukrainian fifth seed Sergiy Stakhovsky 6-3 6-2.

Schuettler will now take on Kei Nishikori after the Japanese defeated Russian qualifier Evgeny Kirillov 7-5 6-1.

Lucky loser Illya Marchenko easily accounted for Frederico Gil of Portugal, with the Ukrainian winning 6-1 6-3 in just 59 minutes.

Marchenko's reward is a second-round encounter with Russian Igor Kunitsyn.

South African Kevin Anderson halted the progress of British qualifier Alexander Slabinsky with a 7-5 6-3 win.

Anderson, seeded sixth, will now meet Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov.

Qualifier Donald Young of the United States defeated British wildcard Daniel Cox 6-1 7-5, setting up a match against Italian Andreas Seppi.

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