British duo Jamie Baker and Jamie Ward were both dumped out in the first round of the AEGON Championship at Queen's.
Baker and Ward sent crashing out in first round
British wild cards Jamie Baker and Jamie Ward were both dumped out in the first round of the AEGON Championship at Queen's Club.
American Robby Ginepri fought off a Ward comeback to progress into the second round with a 6-3 7-5 win.
Ginepri moved into a 3-0 lead at the start of the contest after the British number five lost his first service game but had to save several break points to close out the set.
Ward came back in the second, taking a 4-2 lead after breaking his opponent.
However he could hang on to his advantage in the set and Ginepri came back to level matters at 4-4, before then grabbing a crucial break to lead 6-5.
Ginepri served out the match, finishing with a powerful smash to book a date with compatriot Sam Querrey in the next round.
Heavy defeat
Baker was steamrollered by number 16 seed Denis Istomin 6-1 6-4 in the curtain-raiser on Centre Court.
The Uzbekistani gained his first break in the fourth game and did not look back as he easily took the first set and raced into a two-game lead at the start of the second.
The British number three eventually stopped his losing streak but the damage had already been done as Istomin never looked troubled on his serve throughout the rest of his straight-sets victory.
A third home player in action, British number two Alex Bogdanovic, was 2-1 up in the final set against Grigor Dimitrov when rain ended play for the day at 7pm.
Bogdanovic, who has been
overlooked for a Wimbledon wild card this year, won the first set 6-4 but could not continue in the same manner - losing the second set 6-3 to his Bulgarian opponent.
Elsewhere, French number 11 seed Richard Gasquet comfortably defeated Kei Nishikori 6-3 6-3 while compatriot Julien Benneteau beat another Frenchman, Arnaud Clement, 6-2 6-4.
The first match of the day was over in less than an hour as Michael Llodra beat Andrey Golubev 6-3 6-2 on court one.
Dudi Sela came from a set down to defeat Chris Guccione 6-7 7-6 6-4, Jesse Levine beat Ryan Harrison 6-3 6-3 to win the battle of the Americans and Igor Kunitsyn secured a 1-6 6-4 6-3 win over Illya Marchenko.
