London, July 03: A violent thunderstorm and a series of rain showers wreaked havoc at Wimbledon, leaving all four men's quarter-finals unfinished. Britain's Tim Henman left a dank Centre Court in trouble in his quarter-final against Sebastien Grosjean on Wednesday (July 2), trailing two sets to one after being largely outplayed by the 13th seed. The first set on Centre Court, played under blackening skies, was a mix of the agony and ecstasy that characterises the Wimbledon career of Henman, who has reached the semi-finals and lost four times. Trailing 5-1 after two rain breaks, the Englishman roared back to 5-5, then squandered four set points in the tiebreak and lost it 10-8 when Grosjean delivered a fizzing, dipping forehand passing shot right into the corner of the court. Grosjean was the better player for most of the second set but Henman broke to lead 5-3 and the Briton levelled the match at one set all. After a two-hour break caused by an electrical storm, Grosjean produced some thundering service returns to break twice and take the third set 6-3.


Grosjean led 7-6 3-6 6-3 1-2 on serve when tournament referee Alan Mills intervened to call an end to a disrupted day's action.


In the other quarter-final between two unseeded players on court one, Australian Mark Philippoussis -- conqueror of world number one Andre Agassi in the fourth round -- recovered from two sets down to level his match with German Alexander Popp.


Popp took the first two sets 6-4 6-4 but Philippousis responded in kind, taking the next two sets 6-3 6-3. The pair were level at 2-2 on serve when play was halted.


The winner of that match will face either Grosjean or Henman in the last four. Both matches and the remaining two men's quarter-finals, Swiss fourth seed Roger Federer vs Dutchman Sjeng Schalken and Jonas Bjorkman of Sweden vs American fifth seed Andy Roddick, will be re-scheduled for Thursday, women's semi-finals day. Play will start at 12 noon (1100 GMT), organisers said.


Bureau Report