“The circus has begun,” Andy Roddick mumbled as he practised next to where Andy Murray examined his right thumb before sending down what looked from close inspection like some decently powerful overheads. A camera crew attempted to pick its way through the throng that had gathered in the narrow confines between Courts No4 and No5, reporters edged in, the security men encroached. Murray is permanently balanced on the high wire at this time of year.

The impression from half an hour's viewing was that the Scot would be all right but by 2 o'clock, he had chosen to withdraw from the Artois Championships as a precaution against further damage to the bruised appendage. The tournament directorship may have felt that it had been squirted in the eye with water from a fake flower on Murray's lapel but Roddick, into the semi-finals at Queen's Club once more, laughed loudest.

The message came down that the British No1 would answer only five or six questions and only about the injury, and when one thinks about it, there are only five or six different ways to ask “how's your thumb?”

“I woke up this morning and couldn't pick up my pillow,” he said, adding that, in practice, he could not hit a backhand volley and when he sliced the ball, his hand felt very sore. “As soon as I mis-hit a ball, my ligaments were kicking in to try to control the racket head. I've just sprained it a bit. Hopefully, in three or four days' time, I'll be able to hit balls again.” And have a decent pillow fight.

The interest that will be generated in Murray's recovery falls nicely for ACE Group, his management company, which owns the Boodles Challenge at Stoke Park, in Buckinghamshire, an event in which he is scheduled to make a couple of guest appearances. As was the case last year, when Murray was stricken by an injury to his right wrist, the pre-Wimbledon coverage is likely to be devoted to further pages of “will he, won't he?”

On grass this summer, he has played one full singles match, two games in another - before Sébastien Grosjean, of France, retired - and a couple of twilight doubles with a friend from Venezuela. It does not amount to much, but Murray did not seem perturbed. “A lot of guys don't play tournaments before the Australian Open, it's just about getting yourself in the best physical and mental shape rather than match practice, I think,” he said.

Thank goodness for Rafael Nadal. The Artois management did itself a wonderful favour two years ago when it made the Spaniard its chief target and persuaded him that a few matches on the best grass courts anywhere were the ultimate preparation for Wimbledon. It paid him a decent amount to guarantee his presence and although he lost in the quarter-finals last year, it marvelled at his dedication to the cause and the tournament itself.

There were a few ashen faces yesterday when Nadal lost the first set to Ivo Karlovic, of Croatia, whose armoury used to contain one weapon - a blur of a serve - and now has many components. On 35 occasions, the ball was beyond Nadal before he could react, the first two points of the final-set tie-break being cases in point, but the French Open champion hung in there and refused to admit that he could not retaliate with his famed dipping groundstrokes to keep Karlovic at bay.

So it proved, as Nadal won 6-7, 7-6, 7-6 and celebrated in a manner that left no one in any doubt as to what this victory meant to him. Having contended with the Karlovic serve, the Roddick delivery should hold few fears. The American won their only meeting this year, on the hard courts of Dubai, and he knows this court (26 wins out of 27 including the walkover against Murray) about as well as Nadal does Court Philippe Chatrier at Roland Garros (28 wins out of 28).

But Nadal wishes he was home. No disrespect to anyone here. He needs time to relax with his friends in Majorca, play some golf, eat his favoured fish dishes cooked by his parents and grandparents, laugh, joke, forget tennis. It does not mean he will give anything less than his all today and, who knows, the next, simply that he will fly home at some stage in the next three days because he is spent and the championship he desires above all is just around the corner.

Wimbledon has chosen to award six wild cards rather than the eight it historically grants into the men's main draw - a further indictment of the woes of British tennis. Igor Kunitsyn, of Russia, has been given the last wild card, with the remaining two places filled by Vince Spadea, of the United States, and Thierry Ascione, of France, by virtue of their positions as the next two on the ATP computer rankings.

Melanie South's brave run in the DFS Classic was finally ended by Yanina Wickmayer yesterday, when the 18-year-old Belgian who is fulfilling her promise as her country's next star earned a place in the semi-finals with a 6-4, 6-3 victory in Birmingham. Wickmayer will meet Bethanie Mattek, from the United States, for a place in tomorrow's final with Marina Erakovic, from New Zealand, taking on Kateryna Bondarenko, of Ukraine, in the other match. “I'm pretty proud of how I've done,” South, 22, said. "There's a long way to go, but reaching the quarter-finals was great for British tennis and this has given me confidence to try and build on my ranking of No 154.”