Events / Editor / 15 June 2007 /

Fernando Gonzalez is through to the quarter-finals at the Artois Championships for the second year running.

The third seed from Chile beat American 15th seed Robbie Ginepri 6-2 7-5 on a damp Thursday at London's Queen's Club, and will now take on Russian seventh seed Dimitry Tursunov.

Tursunov went through thanks to a 7-6 (3) 3-6 6-3 win over 12th seed Frenchman Paul Henri Mathieu and now has a crack at Gonzo, the Australian Open runner-up.

World number six Gonzalez, who will be 27 next month, has met Tursunov five times and leads 4-1 but none of those meetings have been on grass.

Their most recent clash was in May at the Masters Series event in Rome, when Gonzalez romped to a 6-2 6-1 victory. In fact, all their contests have been settled in two sets apart from the 2005 US Open when Gonzo needed four sets. The Russian's only win came in the semi-finals of the Los Angeles tournament in 2006, when he then lost the final to Tommy Haas.
In terms of experience, Gonzalez has won seven titles on the ATP Tour to Tursunov's one and is trading at 1.45 to reach the semi-finals while Tursunov can be backed at 3.15.
Elsewhere, the most fascinating match of the day pits second seed and holder Andy Roddick against wild card Marin Cilic of Croatia.
Roddick had a hard time getting past Britain's wild card entry Alex Bogdanovic. He had to come back from a set down and was within two points of going out at 5-5 in the second set tie-break, before recovering to win 4-6 7-6 (5) 6-4.

Now he faces Cilic, Tim Henman's first-round conqueror. The two have never met and there is a gulf of 105 places between them as world number five Roddick starts as hot favourite against the 18-year-old from Zagreb, who is three inches taller at 6ft 5in.
The experienced Roddick is on offer at 1.13 to beat Cilic (8.4) and reach the last four, where he would face Gonzalez or Tursunov.
French Open champion Rafael Nadal will have a busy day if he is to make the semis. First the top seed must finish off Max Mirnyi of Belarus, after rain stopped the 21-year-old in his tracks.

Nadal leads 7-6 (3) 5-3 and if he comes through successfully in the opener on Centre Court, he will then get a breather before returning for the last match of the day against the winner of the third-round contest between Nicolas Mahut of France or fifth seed Ivan Ljubicic of Croatia.
Ljubicic may be the world number 12, but world number 106 Mahut won their only previous meeting earlier this year in Marseille in straight sets. Neither had a great grass court record last season, but Ljubicic is the firm 1.34 favourite with Betfair punters while Mahut is trading at 3.65.

A Ljubicic-Nadal quarter-final throws up a head-to-head record favouring the Spaniard 3-1, but they have never met on grass, while Nadal and Mahut have never met.

Ivo Karlovic, who knocked out Marat Safin on Thursday, also has to play a waiting game. He will face the winner of the third-round clash between fourth seed Novak Djokovic and veteran Arnaud Clement in the quarter-finals. Djokovic has won their only meeting while he has never met Karlovic.
With Roddick already through to the quarters, the American is now the 2.76 favourite to win the event, with Nadal the next best at 2.98.

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