London, England – Top seed and two-time winner Andy Murray and four-time champion Lleyton Hewitt were among the quarterfinal winners Friday at the $900,000 Aegon Championships, a grass-court Wimbledon tune- up.
The reigning U.S. Open champion and 2012 Wimbledon runner-up Murray handled German Benjamin Becker 6-4, 7-6 (7-3), while the unseeded former world No. 1 Hewitt upended third-seeded fellow former U.S. Open champ Juan Martin del Potro of Argentina 6-2, 2-6, 6-2 at The Queen's Club.
Murray titled here in 2009 and 2011, while the former Wimbledon champion Hewitt was the Queen's Club titlist from 2000-02 and again in 2006.
Up next for Murray will be fourth-seeded French slugger Jo-Wilfried Tsonga.
The veteran Aussie Hewitt's semifinal opponent on Saturday will be reigning Queen's Club champ Marin Cilic. The fifth-seeded Croat also posted an upset by dousing second-seeded former Wimbledon runner-up Tomas Berdych of the Czech Republic 7-5, 7-6 (7-4) on Day 5.
Cilic beat former Wimbledon runner-up David Nalbandian in last year's Queen's Club finale, which was defaulted by Nalbandian in the second set when the Argentine smacked an on-court advertising panel into a linesman, who suffered a gash on his leg as a result of an unfortunate racquet-wielding incident.
Also on Friday, the French Open semifinalist Tsonga cruised past upstart American Denis Kudla 6-3, 6-2.
Tsonga will meet Murray for a ninth time on the ATP World Tour, seeking only his second win (1-7). The Brit beat the Frenchman in the 2011 Queen's Club finale.
The 2013 Queen's Club titlist will earn $115,000.
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