Lleyton Hewitt lost to top seed Andy Roddick in a thrilling semi-final at the Queen's Club tennis championships in London.

Roddick's lightning-fast serves, including two that equalled his world record of 153 miles per hour, proved too much for Hewitt as the American wrapped up the match 7-6 (9-7) 6-3.

Hewitt established an early advantage over Roddick when he broke the American in the fifth game of the first set but Roddick broke back in the 10th game to take the set to a tiebreak.

The Australian held one set point in the tiebreak but missed his opportunity and Roddick eventually took the first set 9-7.

The second set got off to a bad start for Hewitt when Roddick broke his serve in the opening game and Hewitt double-faulted on match point to hand the victory to Roddick.

It was the first time in their four encounters Roddick has beaten Hewitt.

Roddick will meet Frenchman Sebastian Grosjean in the final after he beat qualifier Hyung-Taik Lee from Korea 6-7 (4-7) 7-6 (7-3) 6-2 in another marathon semi final.

Lee won the first set in the tiebreak but the fifth seed got the upper hand in the second-set tiebreak to push the match to three sets, which he won 6-2 to end the dream run of the world No.99.

Hewitt, 23, won the Queen's Club title in 2000, 2001 and 2002 but US Open champion Roddick took last year's honours.

Grosjean said a final against either Roddick or Hewitt would be perfect preparation for Wimbledon.

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