Grosjean makes French connection

Sebastien Grosjean has given himself a fighting chance of becoming the first Frenchman to capture the Wimbledon title since 1946 after sweeping past Robby Ginepri in three sets today.

The 26-year-old, who boasts an outstanding record on grass over the past couple of seasons, beat Ginepri 6-2 6-2 7-6 (7/4) to set up a last-eight clash with Wimbledon debutant Florian Mayer of Germany.

“I am here to win the tournament, so I will see,” said Grosjean, who knocked out Tim Henman in the quarter-finals last year before falling to Mark Philippoussis in the last four.

In addition to his success at the All England Club, Grosjean has performed magnificently in the last two tournaments at Queen’s, reaching the final but then losing to Andy Roddick on both occasions.

France is a country where claycourt tennis reigns supreme, yet Grosjean has been able to adapt his game to grass very easily.

“My serve is better than on clay,” Grosjean said. “It’s a little bit faster. I use more of the slice serve. I return well, so that’s helped me a lot on grass.”

Ginepri looked to be a tricky opponent after his surprise victory over sixth seed Juan Carlos Ferrero in the third round, but Grosjean struck some early blows that the American never recovered from.

He broke him to start the match and stormed to 6-2 wins in each of the first two sets. Grosjean was most proud of his resilience in the third set when he was down a break and trailing 5-3 with Ginepri serving.

“I was in trouble at the end of the third set when he had three or four-set points,” he said.

He saved those and eventually got the break to pull back to 5-4 and the set went with serve the rest of the way to force a tie-break.

An ace gave him a 2-1 advantage and then a forehand winner gave him a mini-break and a 3-2 lead in the tie-break.

Two points later Ginepri won a long rally on Grosjean’s service to fight back to 4-3, but the American put a forehand into the net from the middle of the court when he was under no pressure to give Grosjean another mini-break and a 5-3 advantage.

The Frenchman then took the next two points to secure his place in the last eight.

“I never gave up ... little by little I came back, my serve came back and I won in three sets.

“Even if I’m a break down, I keep playing my game. I try to play aggressive because when he’s in the feel (groove), he was playing well.”

Yvon Petra defeated Geoff Brown in the first Wimbledon after the war but a Frenchman has not won since. It will take three more victories by Grosjean to end that drought.

“I will be focused on my next match, and after I will see,” Grosjean said.