LONDON, 4 July 2003 — Andy Roddick and Roger Federer beat their opponents and the rain yesterday as they hurtled into a mouthwatering semifinal showdown at Wimbledon.

On a day which also saw defending champion Serena Williams book her place in the women’s final, Sebastien Grosjean ended British hopes with a four-set victory over Tim Henman.

Grosjean’s reward was a semifinal meeting with Australia’s Mark Philippoussis, who completed a fightback from two sets down to beat German surprise package Alexander Popp 8-6 in the fifth. With both their quarter-finals held over from Wednesday and then delayed for another two and a half hours, Roddick and Federer both seemed determined to spend as little time on court as possible. Roddick was first back into the locker room after a 6-4, 6-2, 6-4 demolition of Swedish veteran Jonas Bjorkman.

But Federer had swiftly joined him after cruising through his match with Dutchman Sjeng Schalken 6-3, 6-4, 6-4 to reach the first Grand Slam semifinal of his career.

Schalken had been grateful for the extra 24 hours he had to rest a badly inflamed and infected left foot which had almost forced him to pull out of the tournament.

But although he was able to play with the help of painkillers, it was soon apparent that the Dutchman was not 100 percent and Federer was able to cruise to victory without ever playing anything like his best tennis.

“It is not so easy to play someone who is not feeling great and is taking chances,” the Swiss 21-year-old said. “But I’m happy I took this opportunity. For me it’s a great day — I’ve been waiting a long time for this moment.”

“It is all about giving yourself opportunities and then taking them. That is what these two weeks have been all about for me and now I want to go further.”

Roddick will go into today’s semifinal as a slight favorite but Federer, who has won all their previous encounters, insisted he would not be intimidated by the American’s killer serve.

Australia’s Mark Philippoussis came from two sets down to rip German Alexander Popp’s Wimbledon dreams to shreds with a 4-6, 4-6, 6-3, 6-3, 8-6 victory in their rain-disrupted quarterfinal.

With the match left evenly poised at 2-2 in the fifth set when rain halted play on Wednesday, the Australian won the final set shootout to tame Popp and reach his first semifinal at the All England Club. He will play Frenchman Sebastien Grosjean.

Venus Williams made it an American double over Belgium at Wimbledon yesterday, fighting back to beat Kim Clijsters 4-6, 6-3, 6-1 and book a second successive meeting with sister Serena in the final.

Venus, winner here in 2000 and 2001, needed lengthy treatment on an abdominal injury at 1-2 in the first set, however, and the Belgian showed no mercy, stretching her opponent all around the court to take the opener in 43 minutes.

Watched by boyfriend Lleyton Hewitt, an ever-present at her matches since losing in the first round of the men’s singles, second seed Clijsters looked on course for her first Wimbledon singles final and a crack at the world number one spot.

After losing her opening service game Venus pulled up in her second holding her stomach and left the court for treatment.

When play resumed Clijsters held her serve to love for a 3-1 lead while Venus, looking restricted, struggled to hold her own serve. Clijsters, who has reached the semifinals or better of all 11 tournaments she has played this season, suffered a lapse to allow Venus back into the set at 4-4.

She put that setback aside, however, and broke back immediately as Venus continued to lose pace on serve. Again Clijsters almost threw the advantage away, but recovered from 15-40 to take the set.

Serena Williams’ moved into tomorrow’s women’s final by overwhelming third seed Justine Henin-Hardenne 6-3, 6-2.

It was a win that will help Serena erase the painful memories of her defeat by the Belgian at the French Open last month in a match marred by a row over alleged gamesmanship and the wildly partisan behavior of the pro-Henin crowd. But Williams insisted it was not a case of sweet revenge.

“She’s a nice girl,” she said. “You guys just want to make a mountain out of a molehill, and in this case there’s not even a molehill.”