Semifinal Preview

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By Barry Newcombe

Nicolas Mahut v Arnaud Clement
Played-Mahut leads 1-0

A new French finalist, and only the second in the history of the Artois Championships, is assured after the 25-year-old Mahut, 106th in the world and 29-year-old Clement, 43rd, came through an astonishing day in the tournament yesterday, both winning two matches to go into the semi-final. Mahut put out fifth seeded Croatian Ivan Ljubicic in the first upset and followed that with an even more emphatic win over the world No 2 and top seed Rafael Nadal.

It is an irony that Mahut will be faced with qualifying for Wimbledon, where he was junior champion in 2000, next week. If it was a black Friday for the high seeds it was a beautiful day for the French contingent for whom Sebastien Grosjean, twice runner up here, has been their lone flag carrier in finals at the Artois. France, numerically, is the second best placed country in Europe (behind Spain)with twelve players in the top 100 and Clement says it is all down to lots of courts and lots of coaches. Clement has fourteen wins and thirteen defeats this year but his victories this week have taken him to his best position in four appearances in the Artois. The last time he defeated a top ten player was in February last year when he beat Nadal in the semi-finals in Marseille en route to the title.

Clement has earned plenty of respect on the circuit and is vastly experienced with eleven successive appearances at the French Open and Wimbledon - he has twice been in the fourth round at Wimbledon. He was runner up to Andre Agassi in the Australian Open six years ago having beaten Roger Federer and Greg Rusedski, among others, on the way. All this says that without question Clement knows the business. Clement and Mahut play each other for the second time, the first on grass. Whoever wins, the accordionist who has provided such beautiful music at the Artois all week, can prepare a few French numbers.

Verdict: Mahut to keep winning

Dmitry Tursunov v Andy Roddick
Played--1-1

Dmitry Tursunov was the first player into the semi-finals of the Artois Championships this time and so established a career best at this tournament having been a quarter finalist last year. He had to deal with a couple of rain delays and being down 4-2 in the final set against Fernando Gonzalez before coming through to play Andy Roddick for the third time.

He has a straightforward approach to returning after rain delays. It was simply a matter of running everything down, he said, and putting the ball back in court. He still thinks grass is a weird surface but says that he has as good a chance on it as anybody. At seventh seed he remains optimistic about his prospects here having reached a semi-final for the first time this year. Tursunov, Moscow born and California based, was in the fourth round for the past two years so is no stranger to playing and winning on grass.

Roddick, second seed here, has a similarly optimistic stance and the proof is that he has won the Artois title three times and has twice been runner-up at Wimbledon. Here at The Queen's Club Roddick is the survivor who knows the most about playing on these courts and he is hugely confident about his game on grass. His career record here is 21 wins against two defeats. It is a fact that their previous two matches have been long ones. In 2005 Roddick won in three tie break sets and last year Tursunov won a Davis Cup match in five sets.

Verdict: Roddick to clinch a place in his fourth final

Bob and Mike Bryan v Paul Hanley and Kevin Ullyett
Played-Bryans lead 6-2

Paul Hanley from Australia and Kevin Ullyett from Zimbabwe are defending the doubles title in the Artois Championships and it was in the semi final round last year that they defeated the Bryan twins for one of the two victories they have gained against today's top seeded opposition. The 29-year-old Bryans, who have been in the world rankings since 1995, have won the Artois title three times and will be keen to regain another crown after falling at the quarter final stage of the French Open last week. Ullyett has won the Artois title before with his fellow Zimbabwean Wayne Black and he and Hanley are now third seeds.

Verdict--the Bryans to reach their fourth Artois Championship final