Saturday, August 5 2006 15:14 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Washington: Britain's Tim Henman fell victim to a familiar nemesis, Russia's Dmitry Tursunov, in a quarter-final loss Friday that scuttled dreams of an all-British semi-final at the ATP Washington Classic.

Seventh seed Tursunov defeated Henman 6-3, 6-2 to book a Saturday semi-final date against 19-year-old Scotsman Andy Murray. Eighth seed Murray beat American Mardy Fish 6-2, 6-4 in an earlier match at the 600,000-dollar US Open warmup.

Tursunov, now 4-1 lifetime against Henman, also ousted the Englishman from the Australian and French Opens this year and from Wimbledon in 2005. Henman's lone triumph came two months ago at Queen's.

Tursunov took the only break of the first set on a forehand winner in the sixth game. He began the second set by breaking 64th-ranked Henman on another forehand and broke him again on his fourth chance of the penultimate game.

"When he's playing like that, he's going to be a tough opponent for anyone," Henman said.

"When he's hitting that big and hitting on the corners, there's very little you can do. You feel like a spectator out there," he said.

Murray, in his first tournament under new coach Brad Gilbert, is ranked a career-high 35th after a fourth-round run at Wimbledon while Tursunov, a loser to Tommy Haas at last week's Los Angeles final, is at a career-best 29th.

Saturday's other semi-final will send France's Arnaud Clement, who ousted Australian third seed Lleyton Hewitt, against the winner of a later semi-final between Russia's Marat Safin and South African Wesley Moodie.

Henman, 31, missed a chance to match his best showing of the year and repeat his 2003 title run here. But he has confidence that heir apparent Murray and Gilbert, who guided Andre Agassi and Andy Roddick to success, will thrive.

"It's early days but you have the ingredients of a great relationship, a great coach and a great player," Henman said.

Murray, who won his only ATP title in February at San Jose, broke 70th-rated Fish twice to win the first set in 31 minutes, then held off a fightback after roaring to a 5-1 second-set lead.

"It was probably the best six games I've played since I was on the tour," he said of his second-set start.

"I really wasn't making any mistakes. I started playing harder. Apart from the last three games, it was a great match," he said.

Fish broke Murray in the seventh game of the second set, saved a match point and held in the eighth and forced two break points in the final game before Murray escaped.

The lackluster finish to a stunning start did not impress Gilbert.

"He was a little disappointed. He thought I got a little tentative out there at the end, which I did," Murray said.

"He started to play aggressively and I started to play more defensively," he said.

Both coach and pupil agree that except for some strategy advice, Gilbert has yet to make a major impact after only a week on the job.

"He was the one who said the changes wouldn't happen overnight. But when you have someone like him in your corner, it gives you more confidence," Murray said.

"He gets me ready to play going into my matches," he said.

Clement had lost all seven prior matches against Hewitt before his 7-6 (7/1), 6-4 victory, which came a day after he snapped an 0-3 career hex at the hands of Slovakian fifth seed Dominik Hrbaty.

"It's very special for me," Clement said.

"We have similar games but he was always a little bit better than me. Two or three times it was close, but always a little better at the important moments. Today was a little bit different," he said.

"This was the biggest one. I was very frustrated," he said.

Hewitt won only 43 percent of his first serve points while Clement fired 11 aces and recovered from squandering a 4-1 lead in the first set by breaking Hewitt to equalize at 5-5 and then dominating the tie-breaker.

"I sort of gave him a little bit of wind to hang in there," Hewitt said

"Rarely does he beat himself. That's why you have got to step up," he said.