Defending champion Hewitt was aiming for a record fifth title at Queen's, but instead the Australian suffered a 7-6, 7-6 second round defeat against French qualifier Jo-Wilfried Tsonga that left his Wimbledon preparations in disarray.

Hewitt claimed the loss was harsh since he had played relatively well, but he will go straight back to the practice courts to work the defeat out of his system.

The former Wimbledon winner admits the All-England club is one of his favourite venues and he is determined not to let his challenge there be derailed by Tsonga's victory.

He is unlikely to enter next week's Nottingham Open because he believes he is already in good enough form and he said: "I'll just be practising. I've put in the hard yards on the practice court since I lost at Roland Garros.

"I haven't really had a day off. I've been hitting twice a day and I've been in the gym as well.

"I feel good physically but I will try and freshen up over the next week to try and be ready for Wimbledon."

Tsonga produced a display well above his ATP ranking of 121 as he played the match of his life and Hewitt conceded it was one of those days when everything his opponent hit turned into a winner.

"It was one of those grass court matches where you go down in two tie-breaks and wonder where it's gone," he said. "I should have won the second set, I was the better player for three quarters of it.

"He just came up with a couple of big shots to get him back in it.

"I don't feel like I hit the ball that badly. Grass is a totally different surface and you are going to get matches like this, especially over three sets.

"I've had a lot go in my favour over the years, but to his credit he kept going for his shots and they kept coming off.

"I saw a bit of his match against Andy Roddick at the Australian Open and he was a set up there and served for the second set, so I knew how flashy he was." Tsonga, 22, had come into the tournament on the back of two consecutive challenger event wins at Surbiton and Lanzarote, but the big Frenchman had no doubts that this was the best win of his injury-plagued career.

"Everything went fantastic," Tsonga said. "I'm very happy because that's the best result in my career. Hewitt is a very good player on grass so it's fantastic to beat him.

"I was injured for two years with a back problem. I made my comeback in January and I've progressed since.

"I love playing in front of a big crowd for the show. It's unbelieveable when there's a big crowd like today."