Lleyton Hewitt's Wimbledon preparations have suffered a setback with a second-round defeat to Spain's Feliciano Lopez at Queen's Club.
Hewitt, a four-time champion at the grass court event and a semi-finalist last year, was beaten 6-3 6-4 in one hour and seven minutes on Wednesday.
The 33-year-old had never lost to Lopez in four previous meetings, including their only other encounter on grass at Wimbledon in 2005.
However the Australian was always on the back foot after dropping serve in the second game of the match.
Tenth seed Lopez capitalised ruthlessly, dropping just five points on serve on his way to taking the first set.
World No.43 Hewitt fought hard to get back into the match but several unforced errors allowed Lopez to break again and go up 5-3 in the second set.
Despite Hewitt breaking back the Spaniard remained again broke Hewitt's serve to book a third round meeting with either Latvian sixth seed Ernests Gulbis or Dutchman Kenny de Schepper.
The defeat means Hewitt still hasn't notched back-to-back wins since winning the Brisbane ATP title in January.
Having also lost in doubles on Tuesday, he will now turn his focus to training ahead of Wimbledon, where he claimed his second grand slam title in 2002.
Bernard Tomic and Marinko Matosevic were also playing second-round matches on Wednesday.
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