Australian top seed Lleyton Hewitt struggled into the Wimbledon semi-finals today after a dramatic and thrilling 6-2, 6-2, 6-7 (5/7), 1-6, 7-5 quarter-final victory over experienced Dutchman Sjeng Schalken.
Hewitt, the 21-year-old world number one and reigning US Open champion, will now face Britain's Tim Henman, the fourth seed, who beat Brazil's Andre Sa for a place in the final.
The Dutchman bravely battled to make a contest of it after easily losing the first two sets, saving seven break points and then four match points on his way to taking the third set.
He then took the fourth set 6-1 as Hewitt threatened to self-destruct and gained the first break of the final set to lead 2-1.
Amid incredible tension on Court One, the Australian broke back to 2-2 before losing his serve again to give Schalken a 3-2 lead while Hewitt hit back again to level 3-3.
The top seed served a love game for 4-3, Schalken levelled to 4-4 and had a break point which Hewitt saved on his way to a 5-4 lead.
The Dutch player made it 5-5 and wasted a break point after Hewitt double faulted in the 11th game.
The Australian stood firm to go 6-5, grabbed his fifth match point with a running forehand and wrapped it up when Schalken hit wide after three hours and 51 minutes on court.
The Australian, playing in his first Wimbledon quarter-final, had gone into the match not having dropped a set and had the advantage of having beaten the 25-year-old Schalken in their only two other meetings - at the French Open and in the semi-finals at Queen's on his way to winning the grass court title for the third successive year.
But Schalken, making his eighth appearance at Wimbledon and playing in his first Grand Slam semi-final after 29 attempts, had been in a rich vein of form winning his seventh career title, and first on grass, at Hertogenbosch two weeks ago.
AFP