Sebastien Grosjean will face Tim Henman in the quarter-finals of Wimbledon after a hard-fought victory over Juan Carlos Ferrero.
Grosjean secured a 6-2 4-6 7-6 7-6 victory on Court One in a fourth round match held over from last night when bad light halted play with the Frenchman leading two sets to one. The result now gives Henman the chance to gain revenge on the 25-year-old after he lost to the 13th seed in straight sets in the semi-finals of the Stella Artois Championships last month.
It looked as though the British number one, already through to the last eight with victory over David Nalbandian on Monday evening, might be forced to wait a little longer to discover his opponent when Ferrero broke serve to take a 3-1 lead in the fourth set.
The French Open champion served two double faults in the next game however to help Grosjean break straight back and he levelled the scores at 3-3 by holding serve comfortably.
Ferrero was aiming to become the first Spaniard into the quarter-finals for 31 years but could be forgiven for thinking everyone was against him during the later stages of what proved to be the final set. A drop shot from the third seed clearly bounced twice before Grosjean retrieved it, and Ferrero attempted to play the next shot through his legs thinking he had won the point.
Umpire Lars Graff, in charge of the controversial Greg Rusedski versus Andy Roddick second round match, was apparently the only person on Court One who had not seen it however, and initially awarded the point to Grosjean. Ferrero was already walking back to the baseline to serve but turned round in amazement and began to argue with Graff, who took some persuading to ask Grosjean what happened.
To his credit the Frenchman admitted it had bounced twice and was warmly applauded by Ferrero and the crowd for his sportsmanship.
Ferrero held serve to lead 5-4 despite another debatable line call which Graff declined to overrule, but was broken in the 11th game due to two uncharacteristic unforced errors.
Grosjean could not close out the match though, a second serve timed at just 74mph and a feeble drop shot into the net betraying his nerves and taking the set into a tie-break.
It was the line judges' turn to upset Ferrero now - one of them receiving a long hard stare after calling a Grosjean forehand in - only to then be applauded by the 23-year-old for getting it right on the next point.
There was nothing anybody could do about the backhand winner Grosjean eventually produced to take the point however, and an outrageous net cord gave him three match points. He only needed one, an ace at 118mph landing right on the line to set up a fascinating quarter-final tomorrow.
PA