France's Sebastien Grosjean reached the Wimbledon semi-finals for the second straight year here on Wednesday by defeating Florian Mayer of Germany 7-5, 6-4, 6-2.
Grosjean will play defending champion and top seed Roger Federer of Switzerland on Friday for a place in the final as he continues his quest to be the first French winner in the men's singles since Henri Cochet in 1929.
The 26-year-old 10th seed came into the quarter-final a strong favourite against 20-year-old Mayer who had only played one match on grass prior to Wimbledon.
But in a tie pushed back late into the evening by a succession of rain showers, it was the German who made the first break to lead 2-0.
Grosjean levelled quickly and took the set in the 12th game when he broke the Mayer serve for a second time.
The second set followed a similar pattern with Mayer breaking to lead and Grosjean hitting back to equalise.
The Frenchman, beaten finalist at Queens to Andy Roddick, crafted out three set points in the 10th game and made it count on the first one as Mayer hit a sliced reverse wide.
Mayer looked resigned to his fate as the third set opened and Grosjean duly did the damage in the fourth game breaking to love with a forehand drive that dug in at Mayer's feet.
{{/usCountry}}Mayer looked resigned to his fate as the third set opened and Grosjean duly did the damage in the fourth game breaking to love with a forehand drive that dug in at Mayer's feet.
{{/usCountry}}That allowed him to go 4-1 up and there was no way back for the German.