Nadal's grass-court winning streak ended at 14 when he fell 7-6 (5), 6-4, the first time he has lost to Lopez since 2003.

Fish defeated third-seeded Murray 6-4, 1-6, 7-6 (2) to reach the quarterfinals in a match continued from Thursday.

All of the top six seeds are out.

Nadal was unable to subdue a lively challenge from Lopez at any stage of the first meeting on grass of the two left-handers.

After an exchange of breaks in the opening two games, the first set went to a tiebreaker which Lopez sneaked 7-5 when Nadal netted a forehand.

In the second set, Lopez broke to lead 3-2 but Nadal leveled in the next game by breaking with a winning return.

Nadal then faced two break points at 5-4 and double-faulted to leave Lopez serving for the match.

“He played well, I think,” Nadal said. “I think his serve was very good, and, you know, from the baseline he has very good slice, and with the forehand he can have a very good shot. I just congratulate him.

“I think I played for moments very good tennis, very good forehands. I played much better than the previous days with my forehand. That's a very positive thing.”

Nadal reported no problems with the leg injury that was treated on Thursday, but withdrew from the doubles citing a right hamstring strain. He plans to return to Spain for a few days of relaxation before preparing for Wimbledon.

Murray was upset on Thursday when the match was halted at 3-3 in the final set because of fading light.

When they resumed on Friday, he and Fish dropped just one point on serve as the set went to a tiebreaker, which Fish dominated after the first four points had gone against serve.
 

In Halle,  Germany,  Roger Federer extended his winning streak at the Gerry Weber Open to 28 matches by defeating Philipp Kohlschreiber 7-5, 6-3 to reach the semifinals on Friday.

The top-seeded Federer has won Halle in his five previous appearances, in 2003, '04, '05, '06 and '08.

He meets another local, Philipp Petzschner, in the last four on Saturday.

Lleyton Hewitt reached his first semifinals of the season when he beat German wild card Andreas Beck 7-6 (0), 6-1.

After struggling early on, Hewitt, making his first appearance at Germany's only grass-court tournament, came back from a break down to win the first set without dropping a point in the tiebreak.

Beck appeared to lose confidence after losing his serve early in the second set and the eighth-seeded Australian had no problems sealing the set in 24 minutes.

“You never expect a lot from your first week on grass. It always takes you a couple of matches to make the transition from sand to grass,” Hewitt said. “So I am happy with where I am at the moment.”

Hewitt was continuing his recovery from a hip operation which forced him to take an enforced break from the game after the Australian Open. He said the hip was no longer a concern.
 

In Birmingham, United Kingdom, Maria Sharapova once again proved too strong for her old foe Sesil Karatantcheva on Friday as she reached the semifinals at the grasscourt event with a 6-2, 6-4 victory.

Back in 2004, an altercation in practice at the Indian Wells event in the United States led to Karatantcheva vowing to kick "her (Sharapova's) butt".

But in front of a standing-room only crowd on one of the outer courts, Sharapova beat Karatantcheva in three sets, before thrashing her 6-0, 6-1 in the second round at Wimbledon a year later.

Karatantcheva, the 2004 French Open junior champion, was banned as a 16-year-old for two years for a drugs offence in 2006.

The Bulgarian-born player, who now represents Kazakhstan, has always maintained her innocence after testing positive for the steroid nandrolone.

Second seed Sharapova won two matches on Thursday, completing a rain-delayed 6-0, 6-3 victory over Bethanie Mattek-Sands of the United States and then beating fellow Russian Alla Kudryavtseva 6-3, 6-1.

Sharapova, Wimbledon champion in 2004, has won this Wimbledon warm-up event twice before and is seeded to meet China's Li Na in the final.

But Sharapova must first get past Alison Riske in the last four.

The US teenager arrived at Birmingham never having won a match on the main Women's Tennis Association (WTA) tour but she continued her fine form at Edgbaston with a three-set victory over world number 16 Yanina Wickmayer.

Belgian third see Wickmayer won the first set on a tie break but a service break in each of the next two sets saw the 19-year-old Riske to a 6-7, (5/7) 6-4, 6-3 win.