Agassi vs. Roddick, Henman in Action at Queen's Club

ATP REVIEW/PREVIEW
The Queen's Club has it's dream semifinal match-ups Saturday, with (2)Agassi vs. (3)Roddick, and hometown (7)Henman vs. (6)Grosjean. On Friday Agassi handled Xavier "X-Man" Malisse in straight sets, while Roddick overcame countryman Taylor Dent in straights. Grosjean, the underrated Frenchman, ousted No. 1 Lleyton Hewitt, and Henman impressively handled Frenchman Anthony Dupuis. With the loss, Hewitt misses the opportunity for a record four Queen's titles in a row, and relinquishes the No. 1 ranking back to Agassi (and the No. 1 seeding at Wimbledon, if they go strictly by the ATP Rankings). The canny Grosjean will be a tester for "Our Tim" in today's semis after dissecting Hewitt's game. "(Hewitt is) the three-times defending champion and won Wimbledon, so I had nothing to lose," Grosjean said. "I just tried to play my game and I really enjoyed it. I sliced a lot of backhands and I tried to hit the forehand when I had time and it worked a lot. He has one of the best returns, so I had to serve well." Henman leads the head-to-head with Grosjean 3-1, but since this match is so close to Wimbledon and within the Brit's sphere of choking, the smart money is on the Frenchman. "You only have to see how Sebastien is playing to know it will be a tough match," Henman said. In the other semi, Agassi and Roddick square off for the fifth time, with A-Rod yet to get a sniff. Coach Brad Gilbert will be in the awkward position of rooting for his new intern against the former intern. "It's going to be a little bit weird for him, probably more so for Brad than it is for me," said Roddick, who most recently lost to The Boss in the Houston final on red clay. "He has a long history with Andre, but they're still great friends so I'm sure it will be no big deal." Agassi is seeking his first Queen's title in only his second career appearance at the tournament.

In Halle, top-seeded Roger Federer continued his head-to-head dominance over Younes El Aynaoui, keeping the No. 5-seeded Moroccan at bay with a 7-5, 7-6(3) win. Also advancing to the semis Friday were the unseeded and former champion Kiefer (d. Stepanek), (6)Youzhny (d. (3)Novak), and (8)Clement (d. Kucera, saving three match points). "I let him back in both sets," said Federer, trying to fend off the patented Club Fed choke. "I was really disappointed about this, especially in the second set. He was completely down and I let him back. In the quarters this isn't funny anymore, so I was a little frustrated. But I was happy with how I played the big points." The experienced team of Todd Woodbridge and Jonas Bjorkman also punched through to only their first final on the year Friday. "I feel really comfortable when I get out on the grass," Woodbridge said. "It's second nature for us to play out there. Yeah, it's been a little bit of a dry spell so far this year, but we just needed to win a couple of close matches and we started doing that this week." Today's semis feature (8)Clement vs. Kiefer (the German leads 2-1, including a grass win), and (1)Federer vs. (6)Youzhny (Fed leads 3-0, including a grass win).

WTA REVIEW/PREVIEW
It has been a week for qualifiers to shine on the WTA Tour; in Birmingham it has been 16-year-old Maria "The Shrieker" Sharapova, who earlier in the tournament was warned for screaming like the big "O" every time she hit the ball. On Friday the toned-down Russian added the third seeded scalp to her collection this week in the form of No. 1 Elena Dementieva, edging out her countrywoman 6-2 in the third to reach her first-ever tour semifinal. "I didn't expect that someone so young had such a good game for fighting," Dementieva said after the loss. "She has a good grass court game and she has nothing to lose, she could do very well." Of course she had to throw in the "I didn't play my game today, I let her play hers." Also advancing to the semis were (2)Daniilidou (d. (10)Tanasugarn in three), (3)Maleeva (d. Foretz in three), and the unseeded Asagoe (d. Vento-Kabachi in a third set breaker). Advancing to the doubles semis were (Q)Trudi Musgrave/Elena Tatarkov and (WC)Martina Navratilova/Alicia Molik. Today's singles semis feature (3)Maleeva vs. (2)Daniilidou, and (Q)Sharapova vs. Asagoe, both first-time meetings.

At the Vienna sausage, Chinese TV is scrambling to capture the first-ever all-Chinese doubles final on the WTA Tour, set up when Zi Yan/Jie Zheng beat Clarisa Fermandez/Henrieta Nagyova, and Tian Tian Sun/Ting Li upset (2)Rita Grande/Barbara Schett. In the singles semis, qualifier Karolina Sprem showed she will not be stopped, eliminating yet another seed in (2)Vera "Warren" Zvonareva. In the final she will meet No. 6 Paola Suarez, who earlier in the tournament ousted No. 1 Jelena Dokic, and Friday beat unseeded Anca Barna in three sets. It will be the first meeting between Sprem (who is 0-1 in finals) and Suarez.

2003 TENNIS-X TOP TITLE CHOKERS (Singles)
Players on the ATP and WTA Tours with more losses than wins in tournament finals in 2003. Andy Roddick is working at Queen's to even his record in finals at 2-2 (minimum two runner-up efforts, through June 9, 2003):

Position/Player/W-L in finals:
1. Lindsey Davenport (USA) 1-3
2. Monica Seles (USA) 0-2
3T. Guillermo Coria (ARG) 1-2
3T. Agustin Calleri (ARG) 1-2
3T. Amelie Mauresmo (FRA) 1-2
3T. Andy Roddick (USA) 1-2
4. Kim Clijsters (BEL) 3-4

TOUR NOTES, QUOTES, AND BARBS
Croatia's Karolina Sprem, the qualifier playing in the final in Vienna, won her first 28 matches of the year while winning four ITF Circuit titles, and before the French Open reached her first final at Strasbourg; she is coached by former ATP player Sacha Hirzson...Pete Sampras says he will definitely never set foot on the hated Roland Garros again, but may play other events: "I did not want to close the door for good. I will see at the end of the year if I will quit or not. Maybe in November or December, after more than a year without a competition, I will have the desire to play a few tournaments. With a bit of luck, it will be for the US Open or Wimbledon in 2004."...In Vienna Friday the temperature dropped from 95 to 68 degrees in five minutes during the Sprem-Zvonareva semifinal.