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Marcos Baghdatis hoping for a memorable birthday

Cypriot tennis player Marcos Baghdatis celebrates after winning his semi-final match against German Philipp Kohlschreiber at the 15th Gerry Weber Open in Halle, Germany, on Saturday. Baghdatis won 7-6 and 6-4 to reach the final. PHOTO: EPA

Marcos Baghdatis hopes to have a double reason to celebrate his birthday on Sunday if he can win the Halle grasscourt title the same day.

The 21-year-old, eighth-seeded Cypriot, who was a Wimbledon semi-finalist last year, beat Florian Mayer in Friday's quarter-final and will take on German No. 2 Philipp Kohlschreiber for a place in the final.

"It [the 96,000 euros (US$128,290) winner's cheque] would be a great birthday present," Baghdatis said.

"I was really happy with my performance against Florian. I returned well, served well, moved well, I am really pleased with my overall game. But Philipp has beaten me in the last two meetings on clay and he'll be tough to beat in front of a home crowd," he said.

Fourth seed Tomas Berdych and Finland's Jarkko Nieminen will contest Saturday's other semi-final, but as the only other seed left in the tournament, Baghdatis admitted playing another German will be tough.

"It's not easy to play against a German in front of a home crowd," he said.

"But I had the match under control and it's important to give your opponent as few chances as possible when the crowd is behind them," he said.

Third seed James Blake admitted he had some safety concerns about a slippery court after being dumped out in straight sets by Kohlschreiber.

Having had a huge smile all week, beaten Blake wore a loser's scowl after his defeat and admitted he had concerns about the court when a brief shower saw organisers close the roof at 3-2 to the German in the second set.

After a long discussion with the match official, Blake — who broke two vertebrae in a freak on-court accident in 2004 — said he had safety issues.

"Before it started raining, I didn't lose my footing, but after the rain started [before the roof was closed], Philipp slipped once and I slipped twice," Blake said.

"That says something about how slippery the court was, it has to be safety first. I don't want to twist my knee this close to Wimbledon," he said.

Frenchman Marc Gicquel had to retire after just one set of his quarter-final after suffering from the after-effects of an injury on Thursday. Gicquel, 30, lost the first set 6-4 to Finland's Jarkko Nieminen before asking for medical treatment and admitted he was suffering from being hit in the testicles by a serve clocked at 208kph. The Frenchman had been floored by the serve from German Benjamin Becker in Thursday's second-round tie and the match was stopped for 10 minutes while ice was discreetly applied to the injury, before Gicquel recovered to win the game. But having spent Thursday night feeling ill and vomiting, the Frenchman said he did not have the energy to carry on against and had to withdraw.

"I am very disappointed for sure," a pale-looking Gicquel said. "But I spent most of Thursday night not feeling well and I was sick a few times. I think it might have something to do with my injury on Thursday."

Sixth-seeded Russian Mikhail Youzhny pulled out of his quarter-final against last year's finalist and No. 4 seed Berdych with a back injury, so Berdych will play Nieminen in Saturday's semi-final with neither having had to play a full quarter-final.
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