London, June 12: World number one Lleyton Hewitt roused himself from a tennis torpor in the nick of time on Wednesday (June 11) to beat Raemon Sluiter at the Stella Artois Championships in London and keep alive his chance of a fourth successive crown here. A sluggish Hewitt narrowly survived a second-round exit, pushed all the way before beating Dutchman Raemon Sluiter 7-6 3-6 7-6. Rudderless after severing ties with his coach Jason Stoltenberg during the French Open last week, Hewitt struggled throughout on the slick Queen's Club grass as he barely kept alive his hopes of a fourth successive title. It was not the preparation Hewitt wanted before the defence of his Wimbledon crown later this month, and must have taken a little bit of the shine off the ATP Player of the Year award he received on court at the end of the match. "He gave me a real run for my money," the Australian world number one conceded afterwards.


Earlier, Greg Rusedski and Alex Bogdanovic provided some British cheer. Rusedski moved into the third round with a 6-4 6-4 win over Morocco's Hicham Arazi in 66 minutes.


Former Wimbledon champion Richard Krajicek advanced in dying daylight, beating Jan Vacek 7-5 2-6 6-3. His reward is a match-up against another member of that exclusive club, 1992 champion and second seed here Andre Agassi.


Agassi, the world number two, was presented with a special award on Wednesday in recognition of reaching his personal millennium. The American celebrated his 1,000th professional career match on Tuesday (June 10) with a straight sets victory over Peter Luczak. It was a fitting milestone to win on Queen's Club's grass Centre Court for Agassi, mirroring the success he enjoyed in his first match 17 years ago.


Then, with flowing blonde hair and bucket-loads of attitude, he beat John Austin in the first round of an event in La Quinta, California.


The 998 matches in between have featured some of the most scintillating tennis, earning Agassi the world number one spot and eight grand slam titles.


Bureau Report