South Africa’s Kevin Anderson powered into the Queen’s Club semi-finals with a 7-6 (9-7) 7-5 victory against Spain’s Guillermo Garcia-Lopez on Friday.
Anderson was appearing in the quarter-finals of the Wimbledon warm-up event for the third time in four years and the world number 17 finally made it to the semi-finals after bludgeoning Garcia-Lopez into submission.
The big-serving 29-year-old slammed down 18 aces and is now within one win of his second ATP Tour final of the year, following his runners-up finish in Memphis in February, as he looks to add to his two career tour-level titles.
“It was definitely dominated by serves today, so step one was take care of my own and try and create opportunities on his serve. Fortunately, I was able to get one right before the end,” Anderson said.
“Queen’s is a pretty big tournament. I’ve been in the quarters a few times and it feels great going one round further.
“I’ve been in the semis of ATP 500 events before. Now I’m looking at getting to the final and having a shot at winning the tournament.”
Anderson had saved a match point before defeating four-time champion Lleyton Hewitt in the first round and claimed the scalp of French Open champion Stan Wawrinka in the second round.
And the 29-year-old, who lives in the United States and expects to be granted U.S citizenship later this year, proved rock solid on the key points again as he ruined the first Queen’s last eight appearance for world number 34 Garcia-Lopez.
In Saturday’s semi-finals, Anderson will face French seventh seed Gilles Simon, who fought back from a set down to defeat world number eight Milos Raonic 4-6 6-3 7-5.
Simon had lost all three of his previous meetings with Raonic, but the 30-year-old booked his first appearance in the Queen’s last four on his fifth match point against the Canadian third seed, who was playing his first tournament for five weeks after foot surgery.
The world number 13 will aim to reach his second final of the year — he won the Marseille Open in February — when he meets Anderson.
Also in quarter-final action on Friday, top seed and three-time champion Andy Murray faces Luxembourg’s Gilles Muller and John Isner of the United States takes on Serbia’s Viktor Troicki.
