British tennis star Tim Henman delighted the home crowd with a thrilling win over Todd Martin to set up a Wimbledon quarter-final against Roger Federer.

The sixth seed, twice a semi-finalist in the tournament, came out fired up after being two sets to one down overnight.

And backed by a capacity Centre Court crowd in brilliant sunshine, Henman scored a famous success in five sets.

He must now overcome Federer, the 19-year-old Swiss sensation who sent seven-times champion Pete Sampas crashing out of the championship.

"I had to try and get the crowd involved and I was really pleased with my performance," said the winner.

"When you're two sets to one down you have to try and get things going quickly and I did that and I'm pleased to get through.

"It wasn't my best night's sleep ever but I needed to take stock and I made a few changes today and it paid off.

"Yesterday was a weird day for a number of reasons, hanging around a long time waiting to go on, I think I injured my back in the warm-up and then it stiffened up."

Henman also confessed that the defeat of friend and reigning champion Sampras had plagued his mind.

Chip and charge

"I was thinking about that and it was a question of trying to focus on the job and in all honesty I didn't do that particularly well. I had to wipe the slate clean today."

Henman's interrupted fourth round match resumed on Tuesday, after failing light had prompted play to be suspended the previous evening.

He emerged onto Centre Court to a boisterous reception, with thousands more cheering on outside.

And Henman quickly secured a vital break in the fourth set, to take a 4-2 advantage and held his nerve to take the set.

While experts had pointed out that the Englishman had been slightly too respectful of the American's serve during the first three sets, there was no such problem on resumption.

During the fourth set, Henman adopted a chip-and-charge approach which paid off with the break but also by putting more pressure on the Martin serve.

With his opponent clearly wilting under the pressure of a partisan crowd as well as some injuries he had carried into the match, Henman seized control in the fifth set.