Lleyton Hewitt has been knocked out of Wimbledon by Marcos Baghdatis in four sets in the quarter-finals.

Baghdatis, who thrilled Australian audiences with his run to the final of this year's Australian Open, dominated in the first set and withstood a Hewitt comeback to win 6-1 5-7 7-6 (7-5) 6-2.

Baghdatis will now play the winner of the Rafael Nadal-Jarkko Nieminen quarter-final, which was cancelled on Wednesday due to fixture congestion and will now be played on Thursday.

"I was a bit tight in the second set but I got through it, got past it and I am very happy," Baghdatis said.

"It's amazing for me, and amazing for my parents."

Baghdatis' dominance in the opening set was staggering, racing to a 5-0 lead after just 19 minutes, with the Cypriot's serve working superbly.

After he won the first set, he did not let up, going up two breaks in the second set.

The record books were being dusted off to see when Hewitt last suffered such a humiliation.

For the record, his heaviest ever defeat in a grand-slam tournament was the 2004 US Open quarter-final when he took just six games off Roger Federer.

But Hewitt has not achieved so much in his career without a reservoir of spirit, and he broke back twice, with the second bringing his first trademark 'come on!' after a subdued start.

He then broke again in the last game to level the match at a set all.

A lesser man may have flagged, but Baghdatis broke in the opening game of the third with the set eventually going to a tiebreak, which the Cypriot won at the second opportunity with a rocket backhand serve return.

Amid the gathering gloom on centre court, Baghdatis made the break in the fourth game of the fourth set and never released his grip, ending the match with another break.

He will hold a good advantage over Nadal, with an extra day's rest before Friday's semi-final.

Baghdatis is on course for another final against Roger Federer, whom he played in the Australian Open final, after the Swiss won through in straight sets over Mario Ancic.

Meanwhile, Australian Todd Perry and partner Simon Aspelin came out on the wrong end of the longest match in Wimbledon history when they lost to Mark Knowles and Daniel Nestor 5-7 6-3 6-7 (5-7) 6-3 23-21 in six hours and nine minutes.

The previous longest match was 5 hours and 28 minutes.

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