Andy Roddick broke his own record for fastest serve with a 246.2kph ace Friday during a 6-3, 6-3 victory over Paradorn Srichaphan at the Queen's Club grass-court tournament.
Roddick served the ace at 1-0, 15-0 in the second set.
"I wasn't trying to hit it any harder than normal, and I didn't really realize until the crowd started cheering and I saw Paradorn smiling," Roddick said. "I was surprised because it was against the wind, and I didn't think I had that in me."
PHOTO: REUTERS
It's the third time this year Roddick has improved the record. He had 241.4kph serve in a Davis Cup match against Austria in February, and another 244.6kph serve in Davis Cup play against Sweden in April.
"I can't feel the difference between 146mph [234.9kph] and 153mph," Roddick said. "I can feel when I hit it big, but if you're asking if I know that's it, I have no idea. In my mind, it still counts as just one point in the match. I'm just happy to get through more than I am about hitting a big serve."
Roddick, the top-seeded defending champion at Queens, broke the seventh-seeded Paradorn twice in the opening set. After an exchange of breaks early in the second set, Roddick won four of five games to close out a 66-minute victory.
"I had one pretty bad game in the second set on my serve, but besides that it was a pretty clean match," Roddick said.
He will face Lleyton Hewitt in the semifinals. The Australian, a three-time Queen's champion, won the last four games of each set to overcome Russia's Igor Andreev 6-3, 7-5.
Sebastien Grosjean, the fifth seed from France, downed Radek Stepanek of the Czech Republic 6-3, 6-3. Grosjean plays qualifier Hyung-Taik Lee of South Korea, who eliminated Karol Beck of Slovakia 6-3, 6-4.
Hewitt extended his career record at Queen's to 20-1. His only defeat came against Grosjean in the 2003 quarterfinals.
"I felt like I served pretty well," Hewitt said. "I just played a loose game in the second set which put me behind and under pressure for the rest of the set, and gave him a bit more confidence as well.
"But I had a lot of opportunities and didn't believe I was out of the second set at all."
Grosjean, who reached his first semifinal of the year, won six of the last seven games to take the first set. He broke twice in the second.
Hyung won the last four games of the first set against Beck, losing just four points. An early break decided the second set.
Gerry Weber Open
Defending champion Roger Federer was finally tested in beating Arnaud Clement of France 6-3, 7-5 and extended his winning streak on grass to 15 matches at the Gerry Weber Open on Friday.
In Today's semifinals, Federer will face third-seeded Jiri Novak, who slipped past German Tommy Haas 6-4, 7-6 (1) at the US$973,000 event, a warmup for Wimbledon.
Second-seeded Rainer Schuettler of Germany will play No. 6 Mardy Fish of the US in the other semifinal.
Federer breezed through the previous two rounds in impressive style, but Clement pressured him from the baseline and battled to the end of their quarterfinal, which he conceded with a long return.
"It was a hard piece of work today," the top-ranked Swiss said. "I didn't feel as good as I did in earlier matches, but a lot of that had to do with Clement."
Federer earned four break chances against Clement, and converted one in each set.
"I didn't feel as athletic today, but my concentration was good. Maybe tomorrow I will put athleticism and head together," Federer said. "But I feel super good for Wimbledon -- much better than I did at this time last year."
Fish rode his big serve to a 6-2, 6-2 win against Spaniard Fernando Verdasco, who captured his first title at Valencia this year.
"I was really confident coming into this match, serving great and it all starts with my serve for me," Fish said. "But it wasn't as easy as it looked. He's got one of the biggest forehands I've ever seen."
Fish, playing for the first time since a hip injury led to a two-month layoff, looked impressive again on the fast grass courts, his favorite surface.
Schuettler ousted countryman Nicolas Kiefer 6-3, 7-6 (2).
Martina Navratilova will play singles at Wimbledon for the first time in a decade.
The nine-time Wimbledon singles champion was awarded a wild card Friday, signaling her return 10 years after she lost to Conchita Martinez in the 1994 final -- and 31 years after she made her debut at the All England Club.
Navratilova, 47, also played in singles at this year's French Open, losing a first-round match lasting barely an hour. The 6-1, 6-3 defeat to Gisela Dulko of Argentina left her with a 0-3 singles record this year.
Navratilova reached the semifinals of the women's doubles at Roland Garros with partner Lisa Raymond. Last year, she won the Wimbledon mixed doubles title with Leander Paes, making her the oldest champion in the tournament's history.
Navratilova made her Wimbledon debut in 1973, losing in the third round. She captured her first title there in 1978 and won it again in 1979, but failed to make it past the semifinals the following two years.
She then won the event six years in a row between 1982 and 1987, and took her last Wimbledon title in 1990, breaking the record of eight All England Club singles championships set by Helen Wills Moody in 1938. She didn't make the final again until 1994, and retired that year before coming back as a doubles player in 2000.
Navratilova, who has a total of 18 Grand Slam singles titles, had previously said she would likely play in at least one grass-court singles event this month, but hadn't indicated whether she would try to play at Wimbledon.
She also has 31 Grand Slam titles in doubles and nine in mixed doubles. She has said that this season will be her last of competitive tennis.
Other wild cards announced Friday went to British players Emily Webley-Smith and Katie O'Brien.
In the men's competition, Arvind Parmar, Mark Hilton and Richard Bloomfield -- all three of them Britons -- received wild cards. One further wild card has yet to be announced for the men's draw.
Wimbledon begins June 21 and ends July 4.
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