I know, Nicolas Kiefer didn't have the reputation of a choir boy before this match.  But he doesn't go deep in Grand Slams so nobody but extreme tennis aficionados (us) was aware of it.  Not anymore.  In the end, however, he did win the match fair and square to reach his first career Grand Slam semifinal.

Lots of interesting articles on this one and particularly the racket throwing incident.  Some highlights:

From The Age: Racquet toss mars marathon

NICOLAS Kiefer yesterday booked an Australian Open semi-final spot after defeating Sebastien Grosjean in one of the longest matches in the tournament's history. But the victory will be remembered as much for a bizarre incident late in the match as for anything else.

In the 12th game of the final set of a titanic tussle lasting four hours, 48 minutes, Kiefer played an angled drop shot, and as Grosjean stretched for it the volcanic German tossed his racquet across the Frenchman's field of view.

Grosjean fluffed his stroke and as Kiefer feigned innocence, the Frenchman asked umpire Carlos Bernades to rule there had been a hindrance. When Bernades was unwilling to do this, Grosjean called for grand slam supervisor Mike Morrissey, who sided with the umpire. Grosjean then shouted at Morrissey, "Go away! Go over there!", gesturing with racquet in the direction of the tunnel.

The rules of the game state: "If a player is hindered in playing the point by a deliberate act of the opponent(s), the player shall win the point." On those grounds, Grosjean should have been awarded the point.

Replays of the incident are inconclusive on whether Grosjean saw the racquet before he failed to make his shot, and this, plus uncertainty from Bernades on whether Kiefer meant to throw his racquet, could have made the umpire reluctant to award the point to Grosjean.

Grosjean went on the win the game, averting further unpleasantness. But it is Kiefer who will play in the semis, the first time in 35 attempts he has reached this stage of a grand slam tournament.

Kiefer had also tangled with Bernades earlier in the match, earning a code violation for time wasting. At one stage he also swore loudly at the Brazilian umpire, but was not pulled up for it. The German has already been fined a total of $6650 during the tournament for using foul language.

Kiefer said later that he was surprised he was awarded the point and that he had apologised to Grosjean, who, he said, was a friend, but he also said the incident should not overshadow his win.

"Of course everybody wants to win, it's so tight … yeah, these things are happening," Kiefer said. "I know it's not nice, I know it's not good. There's so much tension, so much is happening on the court, we fight for 4½ hours, it's so hot out there, your body is gone. These are things that are happening."

Grosjean denied Kiefer had apologised and disputed the German's claim that they were friends, saying: "Friend is a big word."

The incident overshadowed what was a most entertaining match.

It was 23 minutes short of the record set when Boris Becker beat Omar Camporese 14-12 in the fifth set in 1991.

Kiefer, 28, and Grosjean, 27, were the oldest men left in the tournament and the contest started sedately in front of a relaxed crowd, with only polite applause and the occasional call of "Allez Seb!" disturbing the silence.

The combatants were playing a chess-style game, moving each other around the court, biding their time before administering the killer blow.

Kiefer broke Grosjean in the sixth game and went on to take the first set, but the Frenchman whitewashed him in the second.

It was that sort of match: no pattern or trend, just a sequence of seemingly unrelated games, with plenty of intelligent shot making and breathtaking rallies.

Kiefer came back in the third, but it was in the fourth-set tie-breaker, won by Grosjean, that bad feeling really entered the match, with Kiefer complaining bitterly about a number of line-calls.

The final set was another seesaw affair, with four service breaks, but the famously fit Kiefer capitalised as Grosjean began to tire, and the veteran notched his 301st, and most significant, tour victory.

From The Age: A winner without respect

NICOLAS Kiefer is an ill-deserving semi-finalist at the Australian Open. He was ill-humoured, bad-mannered and foul-mouthed throughout yesterday's victory over Sebastien Grosjean, a performance that culminated in the unforgivable moment when he threw his racquet across the court while Grosjean was in the act of hitting a smash. The way he then feigned innocence only compounded the wretchedness.

Kiefer exposed much about himself, and more about the sport. Sometimes, tennis is so concerned with being a "nice" game that when faced with an atrocity, it blushes and looks the other way, hoping for it all to vanish before the next platitude.

Kiefer might never have thought to behave in such infantile manner if he had been docked points or even a game earlier in the match. There were enough opportunities, as he launched a series of tirades, swearing profusely, against the chair umpire about line calls that mostly were shown to be right.

Kiefer pleaded that the day was hot, the match long, tense and gruelling for high stakes, and that these were isolated moments. But it was also so for Grosjean, and he kept his cool and his dignity throughout. Kiefer claimed to have apologised to Grosjean, but the Frenchman disputed that. Kiefer also claimed that Grosjean was a friend. "Friend is a big word," said Grosjean. The hole Kiefer dug for himself grew deeper by the minute.

From The Australian: Kiefer in racquet throwing furore

NICOLAS KIEFER became the first man through to the semi-finals yesterday and the first in living memory to have deliberately thrown his racquet towards his opponent and gotten away with it.

Although it did not affect the outcome of the match, it was an extraordinary incident that produced rage from Sebastien Grosjean and a rare appearance on court by grand slam supervisor Mike Morrissey...

Still stunned by defeat, Grosjean said it was a "bad call" by the umpire and that Morrissey had told him he was sticking by the decision.

"I didn't know you are allowed to throw your racquet when you play, so I asked the referee," Grosjean said.

"He said he has to go with the call of the umpire; and the umpire said I hit the ball. But it doesn't matter. I mean, he was on the way to the volley. If, you know, a ball drops from my pocket, we replay the point, or even a hat.

"Anything happens on the court, we replay the point. But it didn't happen like that. He gave the point right away."

To play a let was the least he deserved, the Frenchman claimed.

Comments

I saw the replay a few times on espn and there is NO DOUBT in my mind that grosjean was distracted by the racket mid point. Kiefer, in my view, is scum.

The rule doesn't necessarily support this, but it shouldn't even matter whether Grosjean was distracted or not. If you throw your racket over the net during a point, you should lose the point.

I sort of understand the reflex by Kiefer - stuff happens after 4 1/2 hours in that heat in a Grand Slam QF as he said - but Kiefer should just have granted Grosjean the point. Not to was really low.

Well, Grosjean can't have been distracted, because he hit the ball already.

It was a reflex, kinda frustration. But Kiefer didn't want to distract him.

Kiefer is a nice guy. He doesn't hide his emotions on court, which makes him entertaining. Btw, he's half french. His mom is from France.

Thank you. I heard the announcer refer to Kiefer as German-French or something like that and didn't know what he was talking about. That explains it.

Looking at the replays I dont think Grosjean was distracted. But the fact remains that Kiefer DID throw his racquet and it landed on Grosjean's side which should have given Grosjean the point.
Does anyone remember the days when players would deliberately miss a shot if they felt they had been unfairly awarded a point?
Grosjean handled his justified complaint to the tournament referee with a degree of politeness that Kiefer should surely learn from.
Kiefer's huffing & puffing over each line call was very irritating.
Some calls go with you some against, overall it comes out the same.