Roddick Fires into Semifinals; Hewitt Awaits

Back to list >

Top seed and defending champion Andy Roddick broke his own world record serve to fire his way into the semifinals of the Stella Artois Championships.

Roddick's 153 mph ace in the second game of the second set put the American on his way to a 6-3, 6-3 victory over Thailand's Paradorn Srichaphan.

"I can't tell the difference between a 146 mph and a 153, it still counts as one point," said Roddick. "I'm just as happy to be through to the final weekend as I am about hitting that serve."

Roddick now has an 8-1 record at The Queen's Club, firing six aces en route to his 66-minute victory and extended his head-to-head record to 4-1 against Srichaphan.

His win sets up a mouthwatering semifinal against Lleyton Hewitt, who moved a step closer to claiming his fourth Stella Artois title with a 6-3, 7-5 victory over Russian Igor Andreev.

Hewitt has now won 20 of his last 21 matches at The Queen's Club, and has a 3-0 head-to-head record against Roddick. This will be their first meeting since the US Open quarterfinal in 2001.

Hewitt took 1 hour, 18 minutes to book his place in the last four at The Queen's Club, where the Australian has now won 20 of his last 21 matches.

The sixth seed, who is hoping to join John McEnroe and Boris Becker as the only four-time winners of the tournament having captured the title, broke Andreev in the seventh game of the match and again to take the opening set.

Andreev, playing in his first grass court tournament, was hoping to repeat his second round victory over Andre Agassi. The 20-year-old Spanish-based Russian put the disappointment of losing the first set behind him and immediately broke Hewitt in the opening game of the second.

He then served for the second set at 5-3 but three forehand errors cost him dearly, and Hewitt took full advantage to get back on serve. He also took the next two games, and, as Andreev served to stay in the match at 5-6, Hewitt applied the pressure to break for the fourth time in the match and seal victory.

"I felt like I played better than in my first two matches," said Hewitt. "I know he didn't have a lot of experience on grass, but he likes to dictate play with his forehand. I served pretty well. I played a loose game at the start of the second set to get broken, which was a shame because I put myself under a bit of pressure. I felt like I had many opportunities out there, and didn't feel I was out of that second set."

Looking ahead to his semifinal against Roddick, Hewitt added: "I'm going to have to make Andy play a lot of balls, which is going to be tough on grass. He's going to be confident here, coming in as the defending champion. It will be a tough match but I'm looking forward to it."

Back to list >