Queen's semis held up by rain

London - Lleyton Hewitt's Queen's Club semi-final against defending champion Marin Cilic was delayed on Saturday as rain lashed the west London tournament.

Former world number one Hewitt was due to face Croatian fifth seed Cilic in the first of the day's semi-finals, but heavy rain fell just before the scheduled 14:15 (CAT) start at the pre-Wimbledon warm-up event.

With the showers continuing, there was still no sign of the Australian and his opponent coming onto court an hour later.

US Open champion Andy Murray is scheduled to face French fourth seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in the second semi-final later on Saturday.

And, with more rain forecast on Sunday, tournament organisers have already decided to bring forward the start time for the final.

Originally slated for a 15:00 start, the final will now begin at 13:00.

"All indications are that rain will arrive mid-to-late Sunday afternoon, so we have made this decision to give ourselves the biggest possible window to play the finals," tournament director Chris Kermode said.