London, June 13: World number one Lleyton Hewitt saw his hopes of an unprecedented fourth successive Queen's Club grasscourt title ended by Sebastien Grosjean in the quarter-finals here today. French Davis Cup player Grosjean beat Wimbledon champion Hewitt in straight sets 6-3 6-4 in an hour and 28 minutes.

The Australian had not lost at Queen's since the 1999 semi-final when he was beaten by Pete Sampras who went on to win the Wimbledon warm-up event that year.

Hewitt, taken to three sets in his two previous matches at Queen's this year, saw Grosjean, 25, twice break his serve in the first set.

Grosjean, who had lost six of his eight previous matches against the 22-year-old Australian, appeared to be struggling when he was broken in the third game of the opening set.

However, a marathon fourth game changed the character of the match. Grosjean raced to a 40-0 lead only for Hewitt to save three break points in a row. Both men were forced into errors by the other's groundstrokes before a Hewitt double fault saw Grosjean level the set.

The Frenchman was cleverly mixing up his game, coming to the net to strike decisive volleys as well as hitting winners from the back of the court.

He held serve in the next and then broke Hewitt again in the sixth to take a 4-2 lead.

The next two games went with serve before a wrongfooting forehand, on his second set point, saw Grosjean take the first set.

Bureau Report