Roddick Hits 153mph on Way to Face Hewitt

For five years Greg Rusedski was the man with the golden arm, recording the fastest serve of 149mph on the ATP Tour at Indian Wells, California in 1998. Then along came Andy Roddick.

The world No2 from the United States and the Stella Artois champion equalled the radar record at Queen's last year, beat it twice this year during Davis Cup matches and yesterday took it up another notch to 153mph - or warp factor 3 as Trekkies and Paradorn Srichaphan know it.

The fastest serves, like the best golf shots, are usually hit straight down the middle. This flew obliquely across his opponent from Thailand but it made not the slightest difference. An ace was an ace was an ace. Roddick was not aware of the record until the centre-court crowd broke into spontaneous and prolonged applause on seeing the reading from the radar gun.

Roddick, who had reached his second successive semi- final with this 6-3, 6-3 victory over Srichaphan, accepted the accolade with due modesty. "I'm not sure what to say. It's just one point." One small point for Roddick, one giant step for radar kind.

It is all a bit of harmless fun and tremendous news for the tournament and its sponsors. Rather more exciting from Roddick's viewpoint was that he will today meet Australia's Lleyton Hewitt for a place in tomorrow's final. "There is no better preparation for Wim bledon than to play Lleyton," said Roddick. "It will be a true test to see where my game is."

There are times when Roddick continues to look more than a little ungainly on grass, where the low bounce exaggerates the vulnerability of his two-handed backhand. The big difference since last year is that he has become a grand slam champion, winning the US Open in September. "It's a big mental hurdle to overcome. And that helps a lot in the latter stages of a slam. The tricky part is getting there," he said.

Hewitt won the Queen's title from 2000 to 2002 and yesterday's 6-3, 7-5 win over Igor Andreev of Russia extended his run here to 20 victories out of his last 21 matches. He was in typical feisty mood afterwards and, when asked which side of the draw he would prefer at Wimbledon, that of Roddick or Roger Federer, he replied: "Couldn't care less, mate."

This may not be strictly true. He holds a 3-0 career advantage over Roddick and 7-4 over Federer, although the Swiss world No1 won their last two encounters, notably in front of Hewitt's home supporters in this year's Australian Open.

The correlation between success at Queen's and then Wimbledon is imperfect. In 2001 Goran Ivanisevic lost in the first round of the Stella but went on famously to win Wimbledon; in 2000 Hewitt won at Queen's and lost in the first round at Wimbledon.

However, like John McEnroe, Jimmy Connors, Boris Becker and Pete Sampras, Hewitt has done the Stella-Wimbledon double. "I felt I was playing much better against Andreev. You want to be getting better and better before Wimbledon and I've been building up pretty well."

The Russian Andreev caught the headlines in Paris recently when he knocked out the champion Juan Carlos Ferrero, even though the Spaniard was injured, and is a 20-year-old of rich potential.

"If you hit anything short he has the sort of forehand that starts dictating play," said Hewitt, who was severely punished in the opening game of the second set when he lost his serve for the only time, although it was not often under threat after that.

But the Australian is a former world No1, as is Roddick, and played the big points well, as he did against Britain's Jonny Marray in the previous round, using the lob to good effect at critical times.

"It's a case of sharpening up a few things," he added. "That loose service game put me under pressure in the second set but I always felt I had lots of opportunities to get back."

Today Hewitt, who has not played Roddick since 2001 - and never on grass - knows he will need to be razor-sharp to return Roddick's boomers. These two, along with Federer and Tim Henman, who will play an exhibition at Stoke Park on Thursday, are the men most likely to succeed at Wimbledon. Much may rest on today's outcome.

·Maria Sharapova yesterday reached the semi-finals of the DFS Classic in Edgbaston </B> for the second successive year with a 6-3, 6-1 win over Australia's No1 Alicia Molik but has pulled out of next week's tournament in Eastbourne, for which Martina Navratilova has accepted a wild-card entry.