Federer reaches Halle quarters

Querrey, Cilic win

HALLE, Germany, June 22, (Agencies): Top seed Roger Federer beat Germany’s Mischa Zverev 7-6(4) 6-4 to advance to the last eight of the Halle Open on Thursday as the 18-times grand slam champion sharpens his grasscourt game ahead of Wimbledon.

Federer, who skipped the entire claycourt season after winning the Australian Open and claiming titles at Indian Wells and Miami this year, will next play defending champion Florian Mayer who beat Frenchman Lucas Pouille in three sets.

The Swiss, who lost his first comeback match in Stuttgart last week, is still lacking some game sharpness and squandered three set points at 5-4 in the first set of an entertaining serve-and-volley

Federer

encounter.

He persisted and carved out two more, winning the tiebreak by whipping a crosscourt backhand winner on his fourth set point.

Zverev’s erratic first serve was a liability and Federer pounced again at 4-4 in the second set to break the German, whose younger brother Alexander is through to the quarter-finals, and served out the match.

World number nine Kei Nishikori’s own Wimbledon preparations suffered a setback when he was forced to retire injured for the third straight time at this tournament.

The third seed needed to take a medical time-out against Karen Khachanov to treat a back injury before playing on for a few points and retiring with the Russian leading 3-2 in the first set.

Wimbledon, the only grand slam to be played on grass, starts on July 3.

Khachanov will now play fellow

German Florian Mayer in action against French Lucas Pouille during the ATP tournament tennis match in Halle, western Germany, on June 22. (AFP)

before Tuesday’s match.

After spending his career trying to eke out a living on the unglamourous second-tier Challenger circuit, Thompson thrived on the big stage, outplaying Murray to shatter the Scot’s hopes of a third successive Queen’s title.

There was no sign of any hangover from that epic performance when Thompson returned to centre court to face Querrey.

Querrey, ranked 28th, has impressive pedigree on grass after lifting the Queen’s trophy in 2010 and memorably shocking Novak Djokovic at Wimbledon last year.

Yet Thompson made the American work for every point before finally succumbing in two hours and 11 minutes.

“Jordan is tough. I knew he was confident coming off that win against Andy,” said Querrey, who faces Luxembourg’s Gilles Muller for a place in the semi-finals.

“Queen’s is one of my favourite places to come. It was fun to win it back then.

“But to be able to win two matches in a row gives me more confidence than winning the tournament seven years ago.”

With Murray, Stan Wawrinka and Milos Raonic already knocked out, Croatian fourth seed Marin Cilic is the highest ranked player left in the draw.

The 2012 Queen’s champion breezed through with a 6-0, 6-4 second-round victory over American teenager Stefan Kozlov.

Cilic’s sixth Queen’s Club quarterfinal appearance will come against American Donald Young as the former US Open champion aims to reach the final for the third time.

Watched by David Beckham and son Romeo, highly-rated Russian youngster Daniil Medvedev defeated Australian wildcard Thanasi Kokkinakis 6-2, 6-2.

Kokkinakis, the world number 698, became the lowest ranked player to beat a top-six opponent since 1994 when he shocked former Wimbledon finalist Raonic in the first round.

But Medvedev, 21, is emerging as a potential star and, just a week after beating Kokkinakis at ‘s-Hertogenbosch, the world number 60 was on top again as he cruised to a quarter-final meeting with Bulgarian sixth seed Grigor Dimitrov.

Spain’s Feliciano Lopez advanced to his third Queen’s quarter-final with a 6-1, 7-6 (7/4) win against French qualifier Jeremy Chardy.

Lopez, the Queen’s runner-up in 2014, takes on Czech seventh seed Tomas Berdych for a place in the last four.

Elina Svitolina was eliminated in

Sam Querrey of the US returns during his men’s singles second round match against Australia’s Jordan Thompson at the ATP Aegon Championships tennis tournament at the Queen’s Club in west London on June 22. (AFP)

the second round of the Aegon Classic, losing to Italian qualifier Camila Giorgi 6-4, 4-6, 6-2 in the second round.

Svitolina, a 22-year-old Ukrainian who recently broke into the top 10, said a foot injury could force her to skip Wimbledon.

“There is a question about it,” Svitolina said. “I will talk with my physios. The season is very long and I must look at the bigger picture.

“The heel feels painful and is very sensitive. I am disappointed I am out of the tournament but I am not disappointed with my performance, because I could not show even 50 percent. Also the court was slippery which is bad for the foot.”

Giorgi will next face Ashleigh Barty in the quarterfinals.

The Aegon Classic originally boasted seven of the world’s top 10 players, but four withdrew with injuries. It has now lost the two top seeded players who started the tournament, Svitolina and Dominika Cibulkova.

Former world number one Victoria Azarenka’s comeback ended in a second-round defeat at the Mallorca Open with the two-time Grand Slam title winner losing 6-1, 6-3 to Croatia’s Ana Konjuh.

The 27-year-old Belarusian, playing her first event in over a year after taking time out to give birth to her first child, went down in 75 minutes to her 19-year-old opponent.

The Mallorca grass court tournament is Azarenka’s only event before Wimbledon which gets under way on July 3.