Rain stops play at Artois Championships

Rain delayed the start of the first semi-final between Andy Roddick and Dmitry Tursunov at the Artois Championships today.

The pair had just begun their warm-up when it started to drizzle steadily shortly after 1.30pm, and the players quickly left the court to allow the ground staff to put on the covers.

Second seed Roddick, the champion at Queen’s in 2003, 2004 and 2005, began the match as favourite against Tursunov, seeded seven, who beat number three seed Fernando Gonzalez in yesterday’s quarter-final to reach the last four.

The second semi-final is an all-French affair, with Rafael Nadal’s conqueror Nicolas Mahut taking on 14th seed Arnaud Clement.