Andy Roddick

London: Andy Roddick made sure he did not join the exodus of seeds at Queen’s Club on Friday when he overcame dank conditions to reach the semi-finals of the Grasscourt Championships.

Swirling winds, however, threw the Wimbledon preparations of Fernando Gonzalez, Novak Djokovic and Ivan Ljubicic off course.

Three-time former champion Roddick surged back from 2-4 down in the second set to end the promising run of Croatian wildcard Marin Cilic with a 6-4, 7-6 win.

“It was a little bit sloppy at times. If I’m going to get through two matches to win this tournament, I’m going to have to play better than that,” said the American second seed, who will next take on Gonzalez’s conqueror, Dmitry Tursunov.

“It was tough here today with the wind blowing around, so I’d like to put it on that but it’s going to have to get better tomorrow (Saturday).”

Third seed Gonzalez took out his anger on his racket as he let a 4-2 lead in the final set slip away, allowing Russian Tursunov to carve out a 6-3, 6-7, 6-4 win in a match that was twice interrupted by showers.

Serbian fourth seed Djokovic, a semi-finalist at Roland Garros last week, also found the slick surface was not to his liking. He was humbled 2-6, 6-3, 6-4 by France’s Arnaud Clement in a third-round encounter as dark clouds gathered over west London.