Third seed Tim Henman slumped to a straight sets defeat in his rain-interrupted Dubai Championships quarter-final against Ivan Ljubicic. The Croatian eighth seed booked his place in the last four with a 7-5 6-4 victory over the British number one.
Henman had looked on course to level the match after going 2-0 up in the second set, but his progress was halted as the rain intervened again.
Ljubicic hit back after the break to seal a fourth straight win over Henman.
Earlier in the day, Spanish fifth seed Tommy Robredo secured his semi-final place when he beat Nicolas Kiefer of Germany 6-4 6-4.
 |  It couldn't be more frustrating as I was very happy with my form - you don't expect this in the desert |
The rain means the other quarter-finals between Roger Federer and Mikhail Youzhny and Andre Agassi and Nikolay Davydenko will now be played on Saturday. Henman was left cursing the weather and the umpire after seven breaks for rain during his match.
"It was incredibly frustrating," Henman said. "It's raining and the umpire doesn't take control.
"He kept telling us to play till the end of the game. But if it's raining, you come off - the score's irrelevant.
"It couldn't be more frustrating as I was very happy with my form until now. You don't expect this in the desert."
The rain meant the two remaining quarter-finals - Roger Federer against Mikhail Youzhny and Andre Agassi versus Nikolay Davydenko - were postponed until Saturday.
MMIX
E-mail this to a friend 
Printable version 
