Andy Murray was given a free pass into the semifinals at Queen's after his last-eight opponent Marin Cilic was forced to pull out with an ankle injury, while British wildcard James Ward stunned defending champion Sam Querrey on Friday.
Murray has been struggling with ankle ligament damage since the French Open, but it was Cilic who was unable to recover from his own injury just hours before the start of their match at the Wimbledon warm-up event.
World No.4 Murray will now have some extra time to rest his injury ahead of his last-four clash against Andy Roddick or Fernando Verdasco. Murray could be joined in the semifinals by compatriot Ward as the unheralded British number two ended Sam Querrey's reign as the King of Queen's.
World No.216 Ward won the final set of their rain-delayed third round match to clinch a shock 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 victory.
Ward had just levelled the tie at one-set all in the gloom on Thursday when play was suspended due to bad light. But the 24-year-old held his nerve overnight and piled the pressure on Querrey when play finally resumed. .
A tight deciding set swung Ward's way when he broke the American 13th seed in the seventh game to take a 4-3 lead.
Ward, who revealed after his surprise win over Swiss fourth seed Stanislas Wawrinka in the second round that he is trained by a former cage fighter, just had to hold serve twice to complete his latest giant-killing.
Querrey staved off one match point and then had a break-point of his own, but Ward kept cool to earn a second match point, which he converted to the delight of the crowd.
There was little time for Ward to celebrate one of the best results of his career as the son of a London taxi driver was due to return to action for his quarterfinal clash with France's Adrian Mannarino later the same day.
Important results: At London: (AEGON Championships): Quarterfinals : Andy Murray bt Marin Cilic walkover; Third round : James Ward bt Sam Querrey 3-6, 6-3, 6-4.
Rafael Nadal bt Radek Stepanek 6-3. 5-7, 6-1; Andy Murray bt Janko Tipsarevic 6-4, 7-6(3); Jo-Wilfried Tsonga bt Michael Llodra 4-3, retired; Adrian Mannarino bt Juan Martin del Potro 7-6(3), 7-6(7).
At Halle:(Gerry Weber Open):Quarterfinals: Philipp Petzschner bt Milos Raonic 6-3, 6-7(6), 6-3; Philipp Kohlschreiber bt Lleyton Hewitt 7-6(4), 6-3; Second round : Lleyton Hewitt bt Andreas Seppi 6-4, 6-4.
