The Hindu : Sport : Roddick on course at Queen's

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Saturday, Jun 16, 2007
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Roddick on course at Queen's

LONDON: Andy Roddick remained on course for a fourth Queen's title after easing into the semifinals with a 6-4, 7-6(5) victory over Croatian wild card Marin Cilic on Friday.

Roddick, the second seed, had too much grasscourt experience for his teenage opponent and will next face Dmitry Tursunov in the last four.

The American won the Wimbledon warm-up event on three successive occasions from 2002 to 2005 and will believe he can tie the record of four singles crowns held by Lleyton Hewitt, Boris Becker and John McEnroe.

Despite his victory Roddick insisted he could still improve.

``If I want to win the tournament I will have to do better than that. I played two good games and then a sloppy one. I wasn't moving as well as I wanted and everything just needs to be a bit sharper,'' said the world number three.

Cilic, ranked 110th in the world, was understandably nervous in the early stages and struggled to find his range on serve. Roddick took advantage, breaking the teenager in the first game and cruising to a one-set lead.

Roddick was a break down in the second set but he was able to slug his way back into the match as a succession of brutal forehands clinched a break in the seventh game.

The tie-break appeared to be going Cilic's way as he raced into a 5-2 lead. Although Roddick was never at his best, he kept his nerve and clawed back before a wild return from Cilic handed him the match.

Fernando Gonzalez suffered a spectacular meltdown as the Chilean third seed crashed out against Tursunov.

Gonzalez was cruising towards the semifinals when he led 4-2 in the final set, but he suddenly lost his cool, allowing Tursunov to break back before destroying his racket and then losing the final three games to go out 3-6, 7-6(5), 4-6.

Rafael Nadal took the express route to the quarterfinals as the top seed won the single game he needed to beat Max Mirnyi 7-6(3), 6-3.

French Open champion Nadal had moved into a 5-3 second set lead before a torrential downpour forced the Spaniard off court on Thursday evening. He next meets Nicholas Mahut who shocked Ivan Ljubicic, the fifth seed 7-6(3), 6-3.Nadal finished the job in business-like fashion, taking only three minutes to serve out the match in double-quick time.

Fourth seed Novak Djokovic's impressive run of form came to an abrupt end when he lost his rain-delayed third round match against Arnaud Clement 6-2, 3-6, 4-6.

Meanwhile at Halle, the top remaining seed James Blake was dumped out of the Gerry Weber Open quarterfinals in straight sets by Germany's Philipp Kohlschreiber.

Despite serving up 10 aces to Kohlschreiber's five, Blake, ranked eighth in the world, had no answer to his German opponent who delivered some telling shots and broke the American's serve twice to win 6-4, 6-3.

The results:

At London: ATP Artois Championships: Quarterfinals: Andy Roddick bt Marin Cilic 6-4, 7-6(5); Dmitry Tursunov bt Fernando Gonzalez 6-3, 6-7(5), 6-4.

Third round: Rafael Nadal bt Max Mirnyi 7-6(3), 6-3; Nicolas Mahut bt Ivan Ljubicic 7-6(3), 6-3; Arnaud Clement bt Novak Djokovic 2-6, 6-3, 6-4; Ivo Karlovic bt Marat Safin 7-6(3), 7-6(4).

At Halle: ATP Gerry Weber Open: Quarterfinals: Tomas Berdych w/o Mikhail Youzhny; Jarkko Nieminen bt Marc Giquel 6-4, retd.; Philipp Kohlschreiber bt James Blake 6-4, 6-3; Marcos Baghdatis bt Florian Mayer 6-3, 6-3.

At Birmingham: WTA Tour DFS Classic: Third round: Alona Bondarenko bt Vania King 6-1, 6-3; Jelena Jankovic bt Maria Kirilenko 3-6, 6-3, 7-5; Elena Likhovtseva bt Ayumi Morita 6-2, 6-0; Mara Santangelo bt Julia Vakulenko 1-3, retd.; Marion Bartoli bt Angelique Kerber 6-2, 6-0; Li Na bt Yuliana Fedak 6-4, 6-4.

At Barcelona: WTA Barcelona KIA Open: Semifinals: Meghann Shaughnessy bt Flavia Pennetta 6-0, 4-6, 6-4; Edina Gallovits bt Virginie Razzano 6-3 6-4.

Quarterfinals: Pennetta bt Emilie Loit 6-3, 6-3; Edina Gallovits bt Kaia Kanepi 6-4, 7-5; Shaughnessy bt Agnes Szavay 7-6(3), 6-4; Virginie Razzano bt Alla Kudryavtseva 6-1, 6-4. — Agencies

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