France's Richard Gasquet gestures after winning his quarter-final match against Andy Roddick of the U.S. at Wimbledon yesterday. - Reuters LONDON (Reuters):
RICHARD GASQUET completed an unbelievable day for French tennis yesterday when he knocked out third seed Andy Roddick 4-6, 4-6, 7-6, 7-6, 8-6 in the men's quarter-finals at Wimbledon.
Less than 90 minutes after compatriot Marion Bartoli stunned No.1 seed Justine Henin in the women's semi-finals, Gasquet came up with a shock of his own."It's an incredible day for me and an incredible (day) for French tennis," said Gasquet, the 12th seed.
Blinking back tears, Roddick said: "When you put your blood, sweat and tears into something ... and it doesn't work out, it's not easy. I'm feeling pretty crappy right now."
Federer had enjoyed an unexpected six-day holiday after his fourth-round opponent Tommy Haas withdrew injured.
Perhaps feeling a little rusty, he dropped his first set of these championships but that did not stop the Swiss from streaking to a 7-6, 3-6, 6-1, 6-3 win over Juan Carlos Ferrero.
Collision course with nadal
Federer is now only two matches away from matching Bjorn Borg's feat of five successive Wimbledon crowns.
After days of unrelenting rain Federer and Rafael Nadal continued to play catch-up and stood only one match away from a final collision.
A merciless Nadal flexed his well-toned muscles for a 7-6, 6-4, 6-2 quarter-final victory over Czech Tomas Berdych.
Triple French Open champion Nadal, who did not finish his third round three-day marathon until Wednesday, became the first man to book his place in the semis.
He must have been rubbing his hands in glee as his semi-final opponent, Novak Djokovic, was engaged in an exhausting five-hour thriller before eventually subduing Cypriot Marcos Baghdatis 7-6, 7-6, 6-7, 4-6, 7-5.
Berdych ran into a little trouble as soon as he walked on to Centre Court as one of the logos on his baseball cap was deemed to breach tournament rules on overt sponsorship.
The umpire took care of the problem by scratching off the offending mark but it turned out to the least of 21-year-old's worries and he was easily outclassed by Nadal.
If there was a prize for endurance, Serbian Djokovic, who set up a repetition of last month's French Open semi-final against Nadal, would already have walked away with it.
Not only has the fourth seed been on court for nearly 17 hours during his five matches to date at these championships, he has also won eight sets in tiebreaks.
