Lleyton Hewitt defeats Federer for the first time since 2003 to win the Gerry Weber Open.

Roger Federer suffered a rare defeat on grass as he was beaten 3-6 7-6 (7-4) 6-4 by Lleyton Hewitt in the final of the Gerry Weber Open in Halle.

Before Sunday, Federer had been defeated on grass just once since 2003, that coming in the remarkable 2008 Wimbledon final against Rafael Nadal.

At Halle, Federer had won 29 straight matches as he secured five straight titles in Germany from 2004 to 2008.

The six-times Wimbledon champion had not lost a match there since 2002.

Hewitt, a Wimbledon winner in 2002, ended the two hour 20 minute contest with a shot which hit the tape and dropped dead on Federer’s side.

The victory for the Australian, at 29 a year older than Federer, ended a run of 15 defeats to the Swiss superstar.

After cruising through the previous four rounds without dropping a single set, Federer – who did not compete at Halle in 2009 – certainly met his match in an eye-catching battle between two former world number ones.

The Swiss started strongly and earned two breaks on Hewitt’s first service game and appeared set to make light work of his sixth Halle final, taking the first set 6-3.

But Hewitt broke early in the second set, confirming he was willing to make a fight of it.

Federer broke back immediately and the game followed serve. Hewitt won the tie-break, converting his fourth set point to level the match and becoming the first player to take a set off Federer in Halle since 2006.

The final set belonged to the Australian, who broke again in Federer’s first service game and never looked back.

“It’s fantastic,” said Hewitt who will surely move on to Wimbledon, which starts on 21 June, with renewed confidence.

“Roger is a hell of an opponent and everybody knows how good he is on grass. His record speaks for itself and I just got lucky.”

Federer v. Hewitt in the Gerry Weber Open final.

Lleyton Hewitt will try to find a way to prevent Roger Federer from winning a sixth Halle title after they both claimed semi-final wins at the Gerry Weber Open on Saturday.

Australia’s Hewitt defeated Benjamin Becker of Germany 6-7 (4/7) 7-6 (7/3) 6-2 to seal his place in the final and watched on as Federer, who has won on all his appearances in Halle since 2003, triumphed in the day’s second last-four contest.

Roger Federer, the world number two for the first time since June 29, 2009, beat Germany’s Philipp Petzschner 7-6 (7/3) 6-4 in one hour and 31 minutes for his 29th straight win at the grass-court tournament in northern Germany.

Federer has won the event in 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006 and 2008. He did not play in 2007 or 2009.

It was the first meeting between the two and Federer suffered a surprise as he conceded two breaks in the opening set. However, he fought back and prevailed in the tie-break.

Federer secured the only break in the second set and served out the match to end Petzschner’s resistance.

Federer, the reigning Wimbledon champion, will meet now meet Hewitt, the most successful active grass-court player, having won 97 and lost 23 matches.

The pair have met on 24 previous occasions, with the Swiss winning the last 15 meetings.

Federer leads the duel 17-7, including 3-1 on grass.

Roger must be grinning from ear to ear tonight!

Roger Federer must be relaxing in his hotel suite tonight in Germany with a contented smile on his face after learning that all his potential rivals for the 2010 Wimbledon title have fallen by the wayside on the grass courts at Queeens.

If his role as the favourite to win yet another Wimbledon title was ever in doubt, then those doubts must have been erased today.

Roger Federer stayed on course to win a sixth Halle title after a straight-sets win over Germany’s Philipp Kohlschreiber in the quarter-finals of the Gerry Weber Open.

The world number two and reigning Wimbledon champion set up victory by going on a five-game winning streak from 5-5 in the opening set, and eventually prevailed 7-5 6-3.

Federer has gone 28 matches undefeated at the grass-court tournament in northern Germany, winning the event in 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006 and 2008. He did not play in 2007 or 2009.

The Swiss recognised the mid-match surge had been all important against Kohlschreiber, the man he beat in the 2008 final.

“Ten strong minutes led to today’s success,” Federer said on gerryweber-open.com.

“It was a bit of a bumpy start, but then I found my rhythm.”

Federer will take on another home hope, Philipp Petzschner, in the semi-finals.

Petzschner defeated Slovakia’s Lukas Lacko 6-4 6-3, and Federer said: “That is not going to be easy. Philipp has played really well here and I have watched him, but we have not played each other yet.”

The other last-four clash will also feature a German, with Benjamin Becker taking on Australian Lleyton Hewitt.

Hewitt reached his first semi-final of the season thanks to a 7-6 (7/0) 6-1 victory over Andreas Beck.

Davydenko struggles to win after a 3 month lay-off.

Davydenko has spent the last three months sidelined due to injury, which could explain why it took the second-seeded Russian so much effort to beat Germany’s Simon Greul. In the end, he gained the upper hand with a 7-6 (7-1), 6-0 win.

“I was completely nervous to start with. I had to get back into the swing of things after my injury break,” analysed Nikolay Davydenko after his successful comeback. Just like Simon Greul, he created numerous break points in the first set. But up to the score of 5-5, none were actually taken. But then the game started to warm up. Simon Greul had defended three break points already come his sixth service game, but Davydenko did not miss his fourth opportunity.

“It was a tough game for me. The longer an injury absence endures, the harder it is to come back,” he said. “I am happy to be able to play here in Germany again.”

Roger Federer eased into the second round of the Gerry Weber Open with a 6-4, 6-4 victory over Finland’s Jarkko Nieminen on Tuesday.

After taking the first set, Federer broke Nieminen’s serve at the start of the second and won in just over an hour.

Federer was playing as the second-ranked player for the first time in 11 months, after Rafael Nadal returned to the No. 1 spot with his victory in the French Open on Sunday.

Also, Mikhail Youzhny became the third seeded player to be knocked out of the tournament after losing to German wild card Nicolas Kiefer 4-6, 6-1, 7-5.