| Monday, 30 June 2008 Written by Michael Burke For two quarter-finalists in the men’s singles, life - at Wimbledon - begins at 30. Arnaud Clement, and Rainer Schuettler, 30 and 32 respectively, are enjoying their best ever Championships, putting some recent indifferent form behind them to cause shocks left, right and centre. Now after ground-breaking wins they will face each other for the sixth, and most important, head-to-head of their careers. Schuettler’s return to form has surprised everyone, reaching his first Wimbledon quarter-final courtesy of a 6-4, 3-6, 6-4, 7-6 (7-4) win over Janko Tipsarevic, Serbia’s last representative in the draw. The experienced German has not played this well at Wimbledon in his 13-year career, and is now the oldest player left in the men’s draw. He capitalised on a tentative start by the Serb, only to be blown away in the second set by a Tipsarevic revival. But he recovered to take the third and fourth sets convincingly to progress to the quarter-finals. Schuettler’s success was based on going after Tipsarevic’s second serve in the first set and keeping the pressure on the Serb in the rallies to take advantage of his lack of mobility in the second set after he had had treatment for a thigh strain. Schuettler was fortunate that his 24-year-old opponent was struggling, however, he was smart enough to be patient, serve well and pick his opportunities wisely. His breakthroughs came in the ninth game of the first set and 10th game of the third, which he took 6-4. Both players tightened up a little in the fourth set, unsurprising really as a place in the quarter-finals was at stake. Tipsarevic valiantly limped his way to a tie-break, but was denied a fifth set when Schuettler took the first of two match points. Meanwhile, Arnaud Clement cruised to 6-3, 7-5, 6-2 victory over Croatian Marin Cilic in less then two hours. The Frenchman, ranked 145th in the world but who won the Wimbledon doubles title last year, was an easy winner of the first set and then recovered from being broken in the second set to win it 7-5. In the third set it only got better for the Frenchman, as he took just 29 minutes to close out the match. He becomes the lowest ranked player in the quarter-finals since Irakli Labadze in 2006.
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