Hewitt hoping claycourt grind will help him on grass

By Pritha Sarkar

PARIS (Reuters) - After his dodgy hip held up better than expected at the French Open, Lleyton Hewitt hoped his claycourt grind would help him shine at Wimbledon.

The Australian's participation at Roland Garros had been hanging in the balance until the last minute as he had missed the entire claycourt season with the hip problem.

Despite the lack of match practice, Hewitt made it through to round three, where he proved his fitness during a 3-1/2 hour scrap with Spanish fifth seed David Ferrer.

"You can't come in and expect a whole heap when (you're injured)," the Australian said after his 6-2 3-6 3-6 6-3 6-4 defeat.

"I wasn't 100 percent coming into the tournament. Hopefully in a couple weeks' time these matches would have helped me going into Wimbledon. That's the biggest positive to take out of it.

"I've still got to recover and get a bit of rehab and try and get the hip right before then."

Hewitt will stick to his usual ritual of fine-tuning his game at Queen's Club before traveling to Wimbledon, where he triumphed in 2002.

He admitted he did not expect any miracles with his hip before action begins at the All England Club on June 23.

"It's still not 100 percent. I try to do everything I can to get as close to 100 percent for Wimbledon. Considering that I've had it for quite a while, I don't think it's going to drastically improve overnight," said the 27-year-old.

"So the chances are you're going to have to play with a bit of pain at Wimbledon, as well, and hopefully if it doesn't get any worse than it was here, I can get through with it."

If the former world number one needed any endorsement about his potential to do well, Ferrer was on hand to provide it.

"Lleyton plays really well. At the end of the year he's going to be one of the best."

(Editing by Miles Evans)