Karlovic, Federer and Nishikori win in Halle; Murray through to Queen’s last-four

Tomas Berdych found Ivo Karlovic’s serves too hot to handle on Friday. Thomas Starke / Getty Images

Croatian Ivo Karlovic hit a record 45 aces en route to beating third seed Tomas Berdych and reach the Halle Open semi-finals on Friday.

The big-serving Croatian, standing at 2.11 metres tall, improved the record for a three-set ATP tour match by one ace, winning 7-5, 6-7, 6-3.

“Berdych returns quite well really,” Karlovic, the world No 27, told reporters. “That’s why lots of aces are so important.”

Predictably, the 36-year-old Karlovic clinched victory with an ace. “I didn’t really know how many aces I’d done. But when I heard it was 45 I knew that’s a new record. Hitting aces helps a lot, you can avoid the volleys. I was surprised when I was told on court after the match how many aces I hit.

“Hopefully I can continue like that in the semi-final.”

Asked whether a spot in the last four or the record was more important, he said: “That’s difficult to say. The semi-final is always good, but only lasts a week. The record may hold for a long, long time.”

He will next face top seed Roger Federer who beat Germany’s Florian Mayer 6-0, 7-6.

World No 5 Kei Nishikori was also made to work hard, needing three sets to tame Jerzy Janowicz.

The Pole eventually ran out of steam in the third set after matching Nishikori’s precision with his power over two sets. Japan’s Nishikori edged out a 6-4, 5-7, 6-3 victory.

The second seed will next meet Italian Andreas Seppi.

Andy Murray shrugged off an apparent left thigh niggle to rally for a testing three-set victory over Gilles Muller in the Aegon Championships quarter-finals at Queen’s Club in London on Friday.

Murray struggled early with his strapped-up thigh and was flummoxed by the craft and guile of Muller’s serve, but rallied for a 3-6, 7-6, 6-4 triumph.

The second set then went with serve until Murray finally raised his game and was able to dominate the tiebreaker.

He then broke early in the third, which was enough to decide the match.

Should the heavy rain forecast wash out Saturday’s schedule, Murray could end up having to play both his semi-final and the final on Sunday to claim the ­title.

Frenchman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga has pulled out of next week’s Nottingham grass-court tournament after failing to recover from an abdominal injury, placing a question mark over his Wimbledon participation.

The world No 12 has not played since suffering the injury in his French Open semi-final defeat to Stan Wawrinka two weeks ago.

He has also missed the grass-court events in ‘s-Hertogenbosch and Halle as a result. “Tsonga has had to pull out of three tournaments now in the lead up to Wimbledon and I hope he recovers well so he can take his place at The Championships,” Nottingham tournament director Paul Hutchins said.

Wimbledon gets under way on June 29.

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