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Rafael Nadal reached the semifinals of the Queen's Club ATP tournament for the first time yesterday, absorbing a barrage of lethal serving from giant Croat Ivo Karlovic to post a 6-7, 7-6, 7-6 victory.
The top seed saw 35 aces fly past his racket but displayed his trademark
tenacity and plenty of grasscourt craft to sneak through to face defending champion Andy Roddick.
Roddick was not even required to take to the court after his quarter-final opponent Andy Murray withdrew with a thumb injury sustained the previous day against Ernests Gulbis.
British number one Murray told reporters later that his sprained thumb is unlikely to threaten his participation at Wimbledon which starts in 10 days.
"It's not terrible, but it's just too sore to try and play a match," Murray, who missed last year's Wimbledon with a wrist injury, said. "Hopefully in three or four days I'll be able to hit some balls again."
Australian Lleyton Hewitt, who like American Roddick arrived at the west London club looking for a record fifth title, was later brushed aside by Serbia's Novak Djokovic.
Djokovic, the Australian Open champion and semi-final loser to Nadal at Roland Garros last week, produced a clinical display to win 6-2 6-2 and set up a semi-final against either Argentina's David Nalbandian or Frenchman Richard Gasquet.
Nadal, who demolished everybody in his path in Paris to win his fourth consecutive French Open title last week without dropping a set, was taken the distance for the second day running after his tussle with Japan's Kei Nishikori. Karlovic, the tallest player on the tour at 2.08m, has the most feared serve in tennis and used it to full effect to blunt the Spanish claycourt king's normal pounding baseline game.
Nadal only eked out two break points in the whole 2hr 24m match, both of which he failed to take. However, his own swinging left-handed delivery was also impressive, if not as spectacular as his opponent's, and Nadal did not once have to face a single break point.
"This was a very important win because I beat a specialist on this surface," Nadal, runner-up to Roger Federer at Wimbledon in 2006 and 2007, told reporters. "When I touched the ball, I returned well."