Britain’s Andy Murray returns to Germany’s Benjamin Becker during their quarter-final match at the Aegon Championships at the Queen’s Club in London, Britain, yesterday. RIGHT: Australia’s Lleyton Hewitt and his son walk off the court after Hewitt’s win against Argentina’s Juan Martin Del Potro during their quarter-final match.
LONDON: Lleyton Hewitt rolled back the years as the Australian moved into the Queen’s Club semi-finals with a surprise 6-2, 2-6, 6-2 victory over Argentine third seed Juan Martin Del Potro yesterday.
Hewitt is a four-time Queen’s champion and this year he is bidding to become the oldest man to win the pre-Wimbledon warm-up event, surpassing American legend Jimmy Connors, who lifted the trophy aged 30 years and 284 days in 1983.
He will fancy his chances after seeing off world number eight del Potro to claim his first win over a top 10 player since he defeated Juan Monaco in Valencia last October.
“I’m still hanging in there. The last four or five years have been tough with surgeries, but mentally I feel fresh,” Hewitt said.
“I’m enjoying competing with the best players in the world. I played really well, I’ve got better with each match this week.”
The former world number one, who made his first appearance at Queen’s as a 17-year-old in 1998, is well into the twilight of his career and his lowly spot at 82 in the world rankings reflects his diminished status.
But the 32-year-old former Wimbledon champion enjoyed notable victories over highly-regarded Grigor Dimitrov and former Queen’s champion Sam Querrey en route to the last eight.
It was the first time Hewitt had won three successive matches at a tournament since his run to the final in Newport, also on grass, last July.
Aided by two Del Potro double faults, Hewitt earned two break points at 3-2 and took the first set in style, unloading a forehand winner that flashed past the Argentine.
He finished off the set in style, breaking again as he nailed a volley on set-point.
Del Potro showed his grass court pedigree when he won the bronze medal in the London Olympics at Wimbledon last year and he hit back emphatically with two breaks in the first three games of the second set.
That was enough to take the set, but Hewitt broke for a 3-1 lead in the decider.
Hewitt’s deep groundstrokes were keeping the towering del Potro off balance and he broke again to seal the win before inviting his son Cruz onto the court to celebrate the victory with him.
Hewitt’s semi-final opponent is Marin Cilic, who remains on course to retain the Queen’s title after the defending champion defeated Czech second seed Tomas Berdych 7-5, 7-6 (7/4).
Cilic won in bizarre circumstances last year when his final opponent David Nalbandian was disqualified for kicking an advertising board into the shins of a line-judge in frustration at losing a point.
The Croatian fifth seed is now just two wins away from becoming the first player to retain the trophy since Andy Roddick in 2005 after a dominant display against world number six Berdych.
“I served really good in the crucial moments and got free points. I’m really happy to be through,” Cilic said.
Andy Murray remains on track for a third Queen’s Club title after the world number two booked his semi-final place with a 6-4, 7-6 (7/3) victory against Germany’s Benjamin Becker.
Murray last won the pre-Wimbledon warm-up event in 2011 and the US Open champion is eyeing another morale-boosting triumph as he prepares for his latest assault on the All England Club.
Murray had no signs of rust when he swept aside both Nicolas Mahut and Marinko Matosevic on Thursday and this was another encouraging outing against the gritty Becker.
Next up for Murray is French fourth seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, who cruised to a 6-3, 6-2 win against 20-year-old American Denis Kudla.AFP
