Events / Editor / 16 June 2007 /

Rafael Nadal's efforts on clay over recent weeks finally caught up with him in the Artois quarter-finals yesterday as world No 106 Nicolas Mahut denied him a place in the semi-finals with a 7-5, 7-6 upset.

Instead of the fans looking forward to a possible Nadal final showdown with Andy Roddick on Sunday they will now look forward to a contest today between Mahut and fellow Frenchman Arnaud Clement, the 14th seed, in one semi-final and a clash between second seed Roddick and seventh seed Dmitry Tursunov in the other semi-final.

Roddick is chasing his fourth Queen's Club title in five years and he booked his place in the last four with a victory over 18-year-old wild card Marin Cilic 6-4 7-6 on a wet and windy Friday in West London.

The American came from 4-1 down in the second set to get the better of the promising young Croatian.
Tursunov booked his place in the last four but he also had to stage a recovery after trailing Fernando Gonzalez 4-2 in the deciding set. The third seed and Australian Open runner-up dropped the first set 6-3 but hit back to take the second on a tiebreak 7-6 and set the pace in the third.

But Russian-born, California-based Tursunov hit back to clinch his first semi-final place at Queen's by winning the deciding set 6-4 in a rain-hit, stop-start match. World No 5 Roddick and world No 26 Tursunov have met twice before and the head-to-heads stand at 1-1.
Roddick won their first clash in Indianapolis in 2005 in three tie-break sets but Tursunov responded by winning their Davis Cup world group semi-final clash last year 6-3 6-3 5-7 3-6 17-15.

If titles are anything to go by 6ft 2in Roddick should start favourite in the battle of the 24-year-olds. He has won 21 to 6ft 1in Tursunov's one. He is trading at 1.38 with Betfair to win the first semi-final with Tursunov trading at 3.55.
In the other semi-final Mahut will take on Clement, who will be boosted by two good wins yesterday. Clement began the day by knocking out fourth seed Novak Djokovic 2-6 6-3 6-4.

He then returned to the court to withstand the power of 6ft 10in Ivo Karlovic of Croatia and come up with a 7-5 6-4 win.
Mahut and Clement have met just once with Mahut winning.

The 6ft 3in 25-year-old from Angers will fancy his chances even though he is 63 places lower than world No 43 Clement, the 5ft 8in 29-year-old from Aix-en-Provence in the south of France.

Clement has been on the circuit for 11 years and has all the experience to make life difficult for the youngster.
But Mahut beat Clement in Casablanca's last 16 last year 6-3 7-6 and also won both their contest in the Futures and Challengers circuits in Grenoble in 2004 and Orleans in 2005.

Betfair have Clement trading at 2.28 to win while Mahut is rated at 1.77.

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