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Tim Henman's Wimbledon dream is over for another year.

It took Sebastien Grosjean just 32 minutes on Thursday afternoon to finish off the British number one 7-6 3-6 6-3 6-4 when the match resumed for its fifth session on Centre Court following the rain delays of Wednesday.

Henman - trailing by two sets to one, but leading 2-1 in the fourth set - needed to start swiftly, yet it was the Frenchman who was again swiftest to find his best form.

He broke the Henman serve in the seventh game with a series of fabulous returns, the shoulder-high cross-court backhand on game point a contender for shot of the tournament.

It was the type of sttiletto thrust guaranteed to shatter the confidence of an opponent.

It needed an immediate riposte and it looked as if Henman might have provided it when he stepped up the aggression to win two break points on the Frenchman's next serve.

Unfortunately, Henman could not convert them, Grosjean delivering a couple of unreturnable serves.

To his credit the British number one kept battling, chipping and charging to try to wrest the initiative at the net, but the quality of Grosjean's returns, like on Wednesday, was just too good.

Henman was forced to save a match point in the ninth game, coming up with a pinpoint-precise serve of 112 miles-per-hour, but it was only delaying the inevitable.

And Grosjean put him out of his misery in the next game with a service game of utter perfection - a booming ace, a couple of outstanding groundstrokes finished off by a tame backhand return into the net which was the last act of Wimbledon 2003 for Henman.

At least Henman was generous in his congratulations to the man from Marseille, who took his place in the semi-finals and must now hope that his defeat of Henman is a good omen.

The player who beat the British hope in his four Wimbledon semi-finals - Sampras twice, Goran Ivanisevic and Lleyton Hewitt last year - went on to become champion.

For Henman, however, there is the realisation that another year has past, one in which the comfort of the draw offered his best chance to date of realising his ambition of becoming the first Briton for 67 years to lift the men's singles trophy.

Next year he will be 29 and the young guns beginning to make their mark in the men's game will offer an even tougher challenge.

Serena Williams shrugged off suggestions of sweet revenge after coasting back into the Wimbledon final on Centre Court on Thursday.

The defending champion overcame Justine Henin-Hardenne 6-3 6-2 to erase memories of her French Open semi-final defeat to the Belgian exactly four weeks ago.

Williams had then accused her opponent of "lying and fabricating" after controversy over a serve.

But on Thursday she was full of praise for the battling Belgian and insisted there had been no lingering bad blood between the pair.

Williams said: "I think she's a good player and a nice girl and I have no hard feelings with anyone.

"The press just want to start a rivalry with people. It used to be the Williams sisters and Hingis.

"It's making a mountain out of a molehill. In this case there's not even a molehill here."

Williams - who needed to win to retain her world number one position - had been close to tears and frequently booed during her stormy Roland Garros defeat.

But she was poise personified on Thursdat as she swept into a 4-0 lead and, despite allowing Henin-Hardenne a double-break back, breezed through the match in some style.

Williams said of her minor blip: "I think if anything it put me on my toes a bit more, to realise that I have to keep fighting because Justine wasn't going to give it to me. If anything that definitely kept me going."

The players exchanged a firm handshake and kind words at the net, but by then Williams had done all the talking that was needed.

In Thursday's other semi injury-stricken Venus Williams proved her fighting spirit by clawing her way into her fourth consecutive Wimbledon final and another showdown with sister Serena.

Things had looked bleak for the two-time champion after just three games of her semi-final against second seed Kim Clijsters when she called a medical time-out following a recurrence of a stomach problem.

She plunged a set and a break behind before hitting back from the brink and carving out a 4-6 6-3 6-1 victory.

Williams visibly cranked up her power after a one-hour rain delay at the end of the first set and in the end it was plucky Clijsters who folded first.

The Belgian, seeking a win which would have earned her a final shoot-out for the world number one spot against Serena Williams, got off to a flyer by breaking Venus in the first game of the match.

When Williams disappeared for a private five-minute time-out the odds favoured Clijsters to reach her first Wimbledon final.

Clijsters stretched her opponent all over the baseline and despite being broken back in the eighth game of the match she hit straight back and then sewed up the set before rain sent the players off the court.

Williams returned after the rain delay with strapping around her midriff and Clijsters continued to press home her advantage with another early second set break.

But that was the first of four consecutive breaks as Williams fought bravely and grabbed the crucial break in the eighth game before serving out for the set.

Unforced errors began to creep into Clijsters' game as the pressure mounted and Williams continued to ratchet up her blistering power game.

Williams raced away with the final set with three consecutive breaks to gain a memorable victory and give herself the chance to avenge last year's final when Serena stole her Wimbledon crown.

Elsewhere men's favourite Andy Roddick remained on course for a first Grand Slam title as he took the opening set of his quarter-final with Jonas Bjorkman.

Roddick drew first blood in the battle of the oldest and youngest men in the last eight by taking the set 6-4 on Court One.

The fifth seed - at 20 some 10 years and five months younger than his Swedish opponent - forced an early break of serve, only to be broken straight back as Bjorkman levelled the scores at 2-2.

Roddick repeated the trick in the next game, however, finally taking advantage of his fourth break point.

And this time there was to be no way back for Bjorkman as the American served out for the set.

Neither player had reached the quarter-finals here before but it was Roddick who was clearly more at home.

He broke Bjorkman again at the start of the second set with a backhand winner, and did not even give the Swede a sniff of a chance of getting back into the set.

He proved there is more to his game than just serving by scrambling superbly to reach a drop shot and forcing Bjorkman into an error which gave him a second break of serve.

And from then on he reduced one of the best returners in the game to a virtual spectator with a series of blistering serves, his 'slower' ace out wide clocked at 115mph and the next down the middle at 128mph.

Another service winner saw Roddick hold serve to love to take the set 6-2 and a seemingly unassailable lead.

But since then the American has also claimed a grass-court title at Queen's last month and developed into a worthy favourite for the Wimbledon title.

He broke Bjorkman with ease to storm into a 4-2 lead in the third set, and although the 31-year-old saved one match point, it was merely delaying the inevitable as Roddick served out for a hugely-impressive 6-4 6-2 6-4 victory.

Elsewhere Roger Federer looked all business as he breezed past Sjeng Schalken 6-3 6-4 6-4.

In a clash between two players worried by injuries, Swiss star Federer, the number four seed, broke serve for a 3-1 lead after a solid start by both players.

Federer showed no signs of a back problem he sustained in the previous round's victory over Spaniard Feliciano Lopez, but eventually his rival started to look uncomfortable having needed an X-ray on an old foot injury yesterday.

Federer - a grass court tournament winner in Halle, Germany two weeks before Wimbledon - was only briefly behind in the opener, having lost the first point on his serve in the first game.

After that, however, he took command with solid deliveries, some sharp returns and the superior ability to get in at the net.

Schalken gradually began to struggle and although he saved a beak point before Federer took a 3-1 lead with a fizzing backhand, the Dutchman could not stop his opponent going on to close out the set, Federer taking the ninth game to love.

Brave Schalken fought back from 40-love down to create a break-point chance in the fourth game of the second set.

But Federer saw off this minor crisis with a spectacular sequence of serves, including two aces timed at more than 120 miles-per-hour.

Eighth seed Schalken, also a pre-Wimbledon grass-court winner in his home country, needed all his determination to hold serve in the next game following two deuces, but Federer's mobility and sharper returning looked key weapons.

Federer - who, along with Andy Roddick, is the only player to have lost just one set en route to the quarter-finals - broke Schalken again to go 4-3 ahead, and his opponent called for his trainer who appeared to offer only court-side words of encouragement.

It could not help the Dutchman stave off another penetrating service game by Federer, who also employed a meaty backhand and eventually served out again to win the set 6-4 and take a two-nil lead.

Federer came back from 4-1 down in the third to clinch a straight sets victory 6-3 6-4 6-4 in one hour and 39 minutes.

The Dutchman surged into a 3-0 lead, threatening to turn the match around.

Schalken looked an entirely different player for a while and Federer temporarily lost all authority.

Just when the match appeared to be turning against him he found his range again for a double break and then swept on to clinch his semi-final place.

It was the fifth time in six meetings, including three this year, that he had beaten Schalken, although whether both players were fully fit for this latest clash is possibly another matter.

Mark Philippoussis piled on the misery for Britain when he beat a half-English Alexander Popp to reach his first Wimbledon semi-final.

The big-serving Australian completed a brilliant recovery with a with a five-set victory over the Heidelberg-born Popp, who holds a British passport courtesy of his Wolverhampton-born mother Jennifer, when their quarter-final resumed today.

The "Scud" powered down eight aces in five service games today, taking his tally for the match to 34 and his tournament total to a staggering 153, to clinch a 4-6 4-6 6-3 6-3 8-6 success and earn a last-four clash with Tim Henman's conqueror Sebastien Grosjean on Friday.

The unseeded Philippoussis actually looked the more vulnerable on his serve, but somehow hung on and achieved the crucial break in the 14th game of the deciding set.

The 26-year-old from Melbourne had begun to turn the match on its head in a stop-start encounter yesterday and the big men began slugging it out from the back of the court when play resumed after another rain delay this afternoon.

Resuming 30-0 up with the scores locked on 2-2 in the deciding set, Philippoussis picked up from where he left off by sending down a 27th ace to maintain his slender advantage.

Neither men showed any inclination to come to the net at first and the tactics appeared justified when Popp missed an easy volley in the second game and when Philippoussis was passed at the net with a pin-perfect passing shot.

However, both players began to show more adventure and the giant Aussie demonstrated his athleticism with a diving volley to save a break point in the 11th game.

He was angered by a line-out call in the next game, but kept his composure to ensured an Australian semi-finalist for the seventh time in the last eight years.

Philippoussis later admitted that, with the match so finely balanced, he was forced to overcome a battle of nerves.

"It was tough and intense and any little slip-up could cost you the match," he told the BBC.

"I'm not known for quick starts. I just wanted to come out firing and take my chance when it comes. Thank God I came up with that point."

The Australian is now anticipating a tough struggle with 13th seed Grosjean on Centre Court tomorrow.

"Obviously he must have played great to beat Tim," he said. "He was in the final at Queen's and he's sure to be on a high."