The match will be remembered for Roddick calling umpire Jorge Dias "an absolute moron" in an F-word tirade.

It happened when the official overruled a line call while he was serving at 5-4 down in the fifth set.

Television appeared to confirm the ball clipped the line, but the umpire ruled it was out.

Roddick threw down his racket, raged at the umpire for more than a minute, before returning to lose his serve and the match with his concentration shattered.

"I went postal on it ," admitted Roddick. "You fight so hard against one of the best fighters in the world and a guy overrules on a ball that was in on the far side.

"I don't remember anything after that. I needed to put it out of my mind but it wasn't all gone.

"That's the worst I've ever lost it on a tennis court. It was an absolutely pathetic call. I'm not going to take back what I said to him. I meant it at the time. I'm disappointed in myself for letting it do that to me.

"But he said he saw it was 100% out and if he said that he's a liar."

The furore overshadowed a match which showed the future face of tennis in another compelling drama at Flushing Meadows.

This quarter-final was always going to struggle to combat the epic battle which raged the night before between thirty-somethings Pete Sampras and Andre Agassi.

Roddick signalled his intentions with a 136mph ace to take the first set tie-break but lost the next two sets as Hewitt's speed about the court cranked up the pressure.

Roddick showed his champion aspirations by clawing his way back in the fourth before that outburst at such a crucial stage of the match saw him lose his serve and pretty soon the match.

Australian Hewitt now takes his place in the semi-finals against Yevgeny Kafelnikov.