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| June 17, 2007 | Sunday | Jumadi-us-Sani 01, 1428 |
Nadal suffers shock defeat as seeds crash
LONDON, June 16: World No 2 Rafael Nadal led an exodus of seeds at Queen's Club on Friday when swirling winds threw Wimbledon preparations off course for several players.
Third seed Fernando Gonzalez, number four Novak Djokovic and fifth seed Ivan Ljubicic also lost, with French players doing most of the damage.
Andy Roddick, however, survived and will be favourite to claim his fourth title here in five years after overcoming dank conditions to reach the semi-finals with a 6-4, 7-6 win over Croatian wildcard Marin Cilic.
Top seed Nadal was undone 7-5, 7-6 thanks to the superior court coverage of an inspired French opponent ranked 106th in the world.
Nicolas Mahut earlier accounted for Ljubicic in a rain-delayed third-round match before handing out similar treatment to the French Open champion.
Slipping and sliding behind the baseline, Nadal squandered break point opportunities at 5-5 in the second set. Mahut then took the tiebreak 7-0, falling to his knees as he sealed a famous win.
Arnaud Clement completed a good day for France, winning back-to-back matches to set up a semi with his friend Mahut.
Serbian fourth seed Djokovic, a semi-finalist at Roland Garros, went down 2-6, 6-3, 6-4 to Clement.
The 14th-seeded Frenchman was back on court less than four hours later to fell towering Croatian Ivo Karlovic 7-5, 6-4.
Third seed Gonzalez looked to be heading towards a showdown with Roddick until he succumbed 6-3, 6-7, 6-4 to Dmitry Tursunov in a match twice interrupted by showers.
Struggling to control Tursunov's powerful groundstrokes, the 26-year-old Chilean smashed his racket to a mangled wreck when the Russian rallied from 4-2 down to level 4-4 in the decider.
Gonzalez was given a code violation and surrendered his title prospects two games later.
Friday’s results (prefix number denotes seeding):
Quarter-finals: Nicolas Mahut (France) beat 1-Rafael Nadal (Spain) 7-5, 7-6 (7-0); 14-Arnaud Clement (France) beat Ivo Karlovic (Croatia) 7-5, 6-4; 2-Andy Roddick (US) beat Marin Cilic (Croatia) 6-4 7-6 (7-5); 7-Dmitry Tursunov (Russia) beat 3-Fernando Gonzalez (Chile) 6-3, 6-7 (5-7), 6-4.
Third round: Clement beat 4-Novak Djokovic (Serbia) 2-6, 6-3, 6-4; Mahut (France) beat 5-Ivan Ljubicic (Croatia) 7-6 (7-3), 6-3; Nadal beat Max Mirnyi (Belarus) 7-6 (7-3), 6-3.
HALLE (Germany): Germany's Philipp Kohlschreiber outplayed American third seed James Blake on Friday to seal a place in the semi-finals of the Halle Open with a 6-4, 6-3 success.
Kohlschreiber will go on to face eighth seed Marcos Baghdatis after the Cypriot saw off another German, Florian Mayer, 6-3, 6-3 in less than an hour.
The other semi-final will be between Finland's Jarkko Nieminen and Czech fourth seed Tomas Berdych.
Nieminen was leading Marc Gicquel 6-4 after the first set when the Frenchman was forced to retire through illness.
Friday’s results:
Quarter-finals: 8-Marcos Baghdatis (Cyprus) beat Florian Mayer (Germany) 6-3, 6-3; Philipp Kohlschreiber (Germany) beat 3-James Blake (US) 6-4, 6-3; Jarkko Nieminen (Finland) beat Marc Gicquel (France) 6-4 – Gicquel retired; 4-Tomas Berdych (Czech Republic) beat 7-Mikhail Youzhny (Russia) – walkover.
BIRMINGHAM: A stiff neck could not prevent Jelena Jankovic from battling to a 3-6, 6-3, 7-5 win over Maria Kirilenko in the third round of the Birmingham Classic on Friday.
The second-seeded Serbian capitalised on a rare dry spell at the rain-hit tournament and was joined in the last eight by Chinese fourth seed Li Na and number five Marion Bartoli.
Top seed Maria Sharapova, however, was not as lucky as she had to make a dash for the locker room before she could even play a point.
The Russian's match against Austrian Tamira Paszek will have to be played on Saturday, although the weather is unlikely to improve.
Third seed Daniela Hantuchova and Eleni Daniilidou were also left waiting around in the dressing room.
After waking up with a stiff neck, French Open semi-finalist Jankovic had to battle back from a set and a break down before eventually edging past Kirilenko.
Friday’s results:
Third round: 2-Jelena Jankovic (Serbia) beat 16-Maria Kirilenko (Russia) 3-6, 6-3, 7-5; 4-Li Na (China) beat Yuliana Fedak (Ukraine) 6-4, 6-4; 5-Marion Bartoli (France) beat Angelique Kerber (Germany) 6-2, 6-0; 6-Alona Bondarenko (Ukraine) beat Vania King (US) 6-1, 6-3; 8-Mara Santangelo (Italy) beat 9-Julia Vakulenko (Ukraine) 1-3 – Vakulenko retired; Elena Likhovtseva (Russia) beat Ayumi Morita (Japan) 6-2, 6-0.—Agencies
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