Defending champion Roger Federer has overcome a battling challenge from 2002 winner Lleyton Hewitt of Australia to clinch a 6-1, 6-7 (1/7), 6-0, 6-4 victory and move into the Wimbledon semi-finals.

Federer, the top seed, now faces France's Sebastien Grosjean for a place in the final on Friday.

Grosjean reached the semi-finals for the second straight year by defeating Florian Mayer of Germany 7-5 6-4 6-2.

It was a tough Centre Court examination for the 22-year-old Federer as Hewitt, the seventh seed, relieved him of two proud records by becoming the first man to take a set off the Swiss in the tournament as well as the first to break the champion's serve.

But Federer dug deep unleashing his full range of volleys and down-the-line groundstrokes to register his 22nd successive win on grass, a run stretching back to the first round at Wimbledon in 2002 when he was beaten by Mario Ancic.

Hewitt was blown away in the early stages losing the first set 6-1 in just 23 minutes before both players were sent scurrying from the court as the rain started to fall at the start of the second set with the score at 1-1.

When they returned, Hewitt found his usual assured range from the baseline but Federer refused to buckle and when the rain returned they were locked at 5-5.

They returned an hour later and Hewitt held to lead 6-5 before carving out two set points in the 12th game from which Federer escaped to take the set into a tiebreak.

But his relief didn't last long as Hewitt stormed through the breaker to level the match at one set each after 72 minutes on court.

It was the first set Federer had lost at Wimbledon since his third round win against America's Mardy Fish in 2003 and it came after he committed a spectacular error on the second point of the tiebreak when he smacked a chest-high forehand long.

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