London, June 10: With defending champion Lleyton Hewitt, crowd favourite Tim Henman and Andre Agassi not playing until today, top billing on the first day of the Queen's Club tournament fell to big-serving duo Mark Philippoussis, the 1997 winner, and former Wimbledon champion Richard Krajicek. Krajicek, who won Wimbledon in 1996, eventually triumphed 7-6 (7/3) 6-3 in just under two hours, but Philippoussis was left to rue a string of missed chances against his unseeded opponent.

As expected, the match was dominated by aces and returns, with Philippoussis making all the early running. Unfortunately for the Australian, though, his touch deserted him at the crucial moment and he squandered four break points.

Two of those points were for the first set but Krajicek produced big serves on both occasions to deny Philippoussis what would have been a deserved lead.

With parity maintained, the match drifted to a tie break and once Krajicek has powered through it 7-3, he had little trouble wrapping up the second set 6-3.

Another former Wimbledon champion who accepted a wildcard invitation to the event was popular Croatian Goran Ivanisevic.

At his peak, Goran was one of the most feared grass court players around, but injury appears to have taken its toll and Jan Vacek took immediate advantage.

The tall Czech eased past the 2002 Wimbledon champion to book his place in the second round and a meeting with Krajicek, winning 6-2 6-2, but Ivanisevic was clearly troubled by an injury.

Bureau Report