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LONDON: Andy Roddick looks like a genuine threat to win Wimbledon.

He beat fellow American Andre Agassi 6-1, 6-7 (5/7), 7-6 (8/6) on Saturday to reach the Queen's Club grass-court final and also equalled the record for the world's fastest serve of 239.8 kilometres per hour.

After four losses and no victories against his childhood hero, Roddick racked up 27 aces and caught Agassi on a slightly off day.

Roddick faces Sebastien Grosjean in Sunday's final after the Frenchman defeated hometown favourite Tim Henman in the other semi-final 6-3, 6-4.

Roddick and Grosjean are 1-1 against each other with the American winning the last time they played.

"It's always tough to return his serve. He has the hardest serve on the tour," Grosjean said.

Roddick's serve matched the benchmark set five years ago by Canadian-born Briton Greg Rusedski. Earlier in the tournament he struck one at 236.8 kilometres per hour.

His victory came just a day after the second-seeded Agassi took over the No 1 ranking on the ATP Tour. With Wimbledon beginning on June 23, seedings will be announced on Monday and Agassi or Lleyton Hewitt are expected to be seeded first.

"He's (Agassi) my hero growing up and he's kicked my butt more than a couple times," Roddick said. "I was looking to get a win out here today and I got a little lucky out there in the end."

Roddick hit about 75 per cent of his first serves and seemed more focused under new coach Brad Gilbert.

"I tired not to let Andre dictate the play," Roddick said. "If you get in a rally with him, he's going to school you. So when I had a good shot I tried to crack it pretty hard."

Roddick was not aware of matching Rusedski's serve until reporters told him about it.

"I guess Greg has some company now. It would have been nice to get that one more mile an hour, but I didn't even notice it so it's a pleasant surprise," he said.

Agassi said he was lucky to be in the match, but said the preparation at Queen's was perfect for Wimbledon.

"To be honest, I was pretty fortunate today to even have a chance of winning," Agassi said. "Between the way he was serving and playing and the way I was striking the ball, I wasn't very convincing at all.

"I felt like I deserved to lose that match and yet I still had some chances. So that's a positive that I could still give myself a look today."

Agassi is the best returner in tennis, but he was powerless at times against Roddick.

"When you hit the spot with that sort of pace, really there's not much you can do about it. You just have to hope that someone doesn't hit 140 (miles per hour) and also hit the corner on the big point," he said.

In the other semi-final, seventh-seeded Henman was never in the match against No 6 Grosjean despite having beaten him in three of their previous four matches.

"I returned very well and Tim wasn't in good shape today, but at the end he put pressure on me and it was tough to finish," Grosjean said.

Henman missed many first serves and lacked the consistency of his opponent, who served well, rallied when he needed to and came to the net with confidence.

A break for 3-1 decided the first set and Henman was soon placed under pressure in the second when Grosjean broke again to lead 2-1.

A further break to 4-1 left Henman in an almost hopeless position and, although he broke Grosjean in the sixth game, he was unable to recover the second break and force a third set.

Agencies via Xinhua

(China Daily 06/16/2003 page8)