London: Czech veteran Radek Stepanek claimed another impressive scalp at Queen’s Club as he followed his shock win over Andy Murray by defeating South Africa’s Kevin Anderson 1-6, 6-3, 6-2 in the quarterfinals on Friday.
Stepanek, ranked 42nd, ended defending champion Murray’s 19-match winning run on grass on Wednesday to clinch his first victory against a player ranked in the top 10 since 2012.
And the 35-year-old continued his giant-killing streak by fighting back from a set down to eliminate world number 18 Anderson and reach the last four at the Wimbledon warm-up for the first time in nine years.
Stepanek will play Feliciano Lopez on Saturday for a place in Sunday’s final after the Spanish 10th seed enjoyed a surprise 6-4, 7-6 (9/7) success against World No. 6 Tomas Berdych.
Bulgarian fourth seed Grigor Dimitrov didn’t have to break sweat to reach the semi-finals as his scheduled opponent, Ukrainian eighth seed Alexandr Dolgopolov, was forced to withdraw ahead of their match with a thigh strain in his right leg suffered during a doubles match the previous evening.
Dimitrov will face top seed Stan Wawrinka, the reigning Australian Open champion, or Australia’s Marinko Matosevic in the last four.
Meanwhile, Roger Federer progressed to the semifinals without playing after Lu Yen-hsun of Taiwan pulled out of their quarterfinal with back problems on Friday.
Federer, who began his preparations for Wimbledon by defeating Portugal's Joao Sousa on Thursday, compensated by playing an exhibition against Christopher Kas.
Kohlschreiber in semifinals
Philipp Kohlschreiber fought his way into the semifinals of the grass-court event at Halle on Friday after edging past fellow German Dustin Brown 6-4, 5-7, 7-6 (18/16).
The defeat came as a bitter disappointment to Brown, who had knocked off top-ranked Rafael Nadal just a day earlier.
Kohlschreiber, the 2011 champion, will now play 69th-ranked Alejandro Falla for a place in the final after the Colombian overcame another German Peter Gojowczyk 7-6 (7/4), 7-6 (7/2).
