Tennis wrap: Friends up in arms

Best buddies Sam Querrey and Mardy Fish will have to put friendship aside for an hour or so after reaching the Queen's Club grasscourt final. The two big-serving Americans are the unlikely survivors for Sunday's final at the Wimbledon warm-up event after world No 1 Rafa Nadal, defending champion Andy Murray and Andy Roddick all fell early. Towering seventh seed Querrey was made to work hard by 34-year-old German Rainer Schuettler, eventually prevailing 6-7, 7-5, 6-3 in an entertaining scrap at the homely west London club just a few miles away from Wimbledon. The 22-year-old then watched the unseeded Fish beat eighth-seeded Spaniard Feliciano Lopez, conqueror of Nadal, 6-3 6-4 to set up the first all-American final here since Todd Martin beat Pete Sampras in 1994. Fish and Querrey have only met once before, in 2007 when the former won in straight sets. "It will be fun to play Mardy in the final," Querrey said after reaching the fourth final of an encouraging year for the Californian. "It's never easy playing a friend," said Fish who upset the locals on Thursday when he walked off court citing bad light in the deciding set of his match with Murray. "Whoever wins will just have to buy dinner."

World No 2 Roger Federer closed in on his sixth Halle Open title with a 7-6, 6-4 win over local favourite Philipp Petzschner in the semi-finals. Federer, knocked off the top spot by Rafael Nadal this week, will meet Lleyton Hewitt in the final after the Australian disposed of another German, Benjamin Becker, 6-7, 7-6, 6-2. It will be a first final for Hewitt since having hip surgery at the beginning of the year.

Maria Sharapova will have the chance to turn the tables on China's Li Na when they clash in the final of the Edgbaston grasscourt tournament. Sharapova beat American Alison Riske 6-2, 4-6, 6-1 in Saturday's semi-finals while top seed Li Na beat Aravane Rezai, the fourth seed from France, 6-1, 3-6, 6-3. "It'll be good to play her again," Russian Sharapova, who lost to the Chinese player in the semi-finals last year, told reporters. "A year makes a big difference. "I certainly don't like losing to the same person twice in a row - I'm a big competitor. I'm certainly going to try to turn that around." * Agencies