LONDON, 14 June 2003 — Lleyton Hewitt saw his hopes of a unprecedented fourth successive Queen’s Club grasscourt title ended by Sebastien Grosjean in the quarterfinals here yesterday. French Davis Cup player Grosjean beat Wimbledon champion Hewitt in straight sets, 6-3, 6-4, in one hour and 28 minutes.

“He mixed it up well,” said Hewitt of Grosjean. But the champion was unhappy with his own form and especially his serve. “I can’t remember too many times since I’ve been in the top 10 when I’ve lost game from 40-0 up. My serve wasn’t going well and I didn’t return well - and they are two of the most important things in grasscourt tennis,” the Australian added.

But despite this defeat Hewitt said he would not play the grasscourt event at Rosmalen, in the Netherlands, next week. “Rosmalen hurts itself by having a Sunday final,” said Hewitt who as Wimbledon champion will start the defense of his title 24 hours later on Monday.

And he insisted he was not too disappointed that his Queen’s run had ended. “I know how hard it is to do it once, let alone four times,” Hewitt said. “It would have been great but, when you know how close grasscourt matches can be, especially in the best of three sets, to win three in a row and to have that kind of streak at this place (Queen’s), well you’re lucky to get it.”

Hewitt had won 17 matches at Queen’s since the 1999 semifinal when he was beaten by Pete Sampras who went on to win the Wimbledon warm-up event that year.

And this reverse was also his first defeat on grass since Grosjean’s fellow Frenchman Nicolas Escude twice beat him on the surface in 2001 at Wimbledon and in a Davis Cup tie in Melbourne.

Hewitt had since won 17 matches on grass — a winning streak that began with a victory over Grosjean.

To make matters worse Hewitt knew that he would lose his world No. 1 ranking to Andre Agassi if he were to win his quarterfinal against Xavier Malisee, which the American duly did 6-4, 7-5.

Hewitt, taken to three sets in his two previous matches at Queen’s this year, saw Grosjean, 25, twice break his serve in the first set.

Federer Battles

Into Halle Semifinals

In Halle, Germany, Roger Federer beat Morocco’s Younes El Aynaoui 7-5, 7-6 to reach his second successive Halle Open semifinal but said he still needed to improve his game before the start of Wimbledon.

The top-seeded Swiss, bidding for his first grasscourt title, let slip a 3-0 lead in both sets but recovered his poise to set up a meeting with Russian Mikhail Youzhny, who ousted third seed Jiri Novak.

Frustrated after allowing El Aynaoui back into the match twice, Federer said: “It should have been easier but all in all I am happy with the match. With a player like him you can’t afford to let him back into the match, twice, but today I got out of it. I was more consistent and am feeling good from the baseline. I just need to get a bit more feel on the volleys because I was serving and volleying a lot today.”

Federer lived up to his top billing as he grabbed a 3-0 lead in the opening set. But the Moroccan, who admitted he had been ‘killed’ by Federer in their last meeting, held serve and broke back for 3-2.

The pair then stayed on serve until the 12th game, when the Swiss broke again to take the set.

The pattern was repeated at the start of the second set as Federer stormed to a 3-0 lead, only to be broken back — thanks partly to a superb shot from between his legs by El Aynaoui.

This time the Moroccan held serve right through to force a tiebreak, but Federer stepped up his game to take it 7-3.

Youzhny, who has reached the fourth round at Wimbledon in each of the last two years, outplayed third seed Novak 6-4, 6-4.

Nicolas Kiefer, runner-up to Yevgeny Kafelnikov last year, kept German hopes alive as he beat Czech Radek Stepanek 7-5, 6-3. vKiefer showed signs of his best form as he claimed his third successive win for the first time since Halle last year.

His semifinal opponent will be Frenchman Arnaud Clement, the eighth seed, who ousted Slovakian Karol Kucera 7-5, 6-7, 7-6 in an epic battle lasting three hours, 22 minutes. Clement served for the match at 5-4 in the second set while Kucera served two double faults on his first two match points in the deciding set.