LONDON, June 19 (Reuters) - Top seed Alex de Minaur's hopes of adding his name to the illustrious list of winners of the Queen's Club title ended in defeat by American Brandon Nakashima on Friday.
The Australian world number six is regarded as one of the best exponents of grass court tennis but was unable to handle the aggressive Nakashima in a 7-5 6-3 quarter-final defeat.
A tight opening set dominated by serve was edged by world number 32 Nakashima as he converted the first break point of the match
in the 12th game.
De Minaur had a chance at 1-1 in the second set on Nakashima's serve but was unable to take it.
On a boiling hot day on Andy Murray Arena, he dropped serve at 3-4 and there was no way back as Nakashima clinched his first win against a top-10 player in two years.
Nakashima will face Argentina's seventh seed Francisco Cerundolo after he battled past British wildcard Arthur Fery 7-6(1) 3-6 6-4. Cerundolo suffered a scare when he was struck in the throat by a Fery backhand from close range and was left on the ground.
"I got hit and I couldn't breathe, but after one or two games it went away," he said.
The other semi-final will see American former champion Tommy Paul take on France's Ugo Humbert. Paul beat fourth seed Alejandro Davidovich Fokina of Spain 6-3 7-6(4) while Humbert thrashed Australia's Rinky Hijikata.
(Reporting by Martyn Herman; Editing by Andrew Cawthorne and Pritha Sarkar)
