Lleyton Hewitt goes down fighting at the French Open Lleyton Hewitt was gallant in his five-set loss to Gilles Simon at the French Open. LLEYTON Hewitt put on a brilliant show, but ultimately bowed out of the French Open when beaten by a younger, stronger and higher-ranked opponent. Local hope Gilles Simon recovered from two sets down to win their first-round match 3-6 1-6 6-4 6-1 7-5. There was more than a glimpse of vintage Hewitt during the match lasting three hours and 19 minutes on the Court Suzanne Lenglen stage as the 86th-ranked Australian took control early and ground out some impressive points. There were shouts of triumph and admonishment at the appropriate times and even a late comeback by the Australian, who fought his way back from 5-0 down in the final set. But world No.18 Simon had enough in the tank to keep his unbeaten record against Hewitt intact with four wins from as many meetings. The pair kept trading breaks in the opening set but, after grabbing the upper hand with a 5-3 lead, Hewitt won a 31-shot rally to grab set point, sealing it when Simon hit the ball long. Hewitt broke his opponent twice early in the second set and then dug his way out of another long rally when Simon threatened to respond in the sixth game. Lleyton Hewitt celebrates claiming the first set against Gilles Simon. Hewitt moved Simon around the court relentlessly and fought off a break point before the Frenchman dropped serve to hand Hewitt a two-set lead. Simon fought back, going up 2-0 in the third set, but a key let cord went Hewitt's way, allowing him back into the sixth game and he went on to draw level at 3-3. The local seized on a double fault by Hewitt to break back, however, and won the deciding game to love. That signalled a turnaround by the Frenchman, who blazed his way to an unassailable 4-0 lead in the fourth set. Hewitt took a medical time-out before the deciding set to have the already heavily taped first and second toes on his left foot re-strapped. The 32-year-old had a plate inserted in his left big toe early last year to treat a long-standing foot problem. The final set resembled the fourth at the start, with Simon sweeping the first five games. Hewitt broke his opponent and then fought off two match points in the next game to launch his stunning reply. With the score locked at 5-5, Simon held serve and then broke Hewitt to claim the first of three match points he had in that game when the Aussie veteran netted a forehand. Gilles Simon serves against Lleyton Hewitt in their first-round match at Roland Garros. After successfully navigating the qualifying rounds, Australia's James Duckworth fell with a thud, bundled out of the main draw in straight sets. Blaz Kavcic's 6-2 6-2 6-2 victory on the opening day of the tournament bore no resemblance to his dog fight with the 21-year-old Sydneysider at the Australian Open earlier this year. In January, Duckworth pushed his second-round opponent to the limit before the more experienced Kavcic prevailed 10-8 in the fifth. But in Paris, Duckworth was broken in the first game of the match and he struggled from there. Broken early again in the second, the Australian ranked 185th in the world blew the chance to break back and his Slovenian opponent, ranked 81 places higher made light work of winning the second set. Duckworth held on for longer in the third, but Kavcic made the decisive break in the penultimate game of the match for a comfortable win. "I played a lot better in the matches in qualifying, which is a bit disappointing," Duckworth said. Some days you turn up and things just don't go your way and today was one of those days for me. I felt okay physically, I just didn't strike the ball as well today as I have in the past few days.