Andy Murray continued his march towards another Wimbledon final with a hard-earned victory over giant Croatian Ivo Karlovic on Centre Court.
The 2013 champion, who is seeded third, won 7-6 (9-7) 6-4 5-7 6-4 in just over three hours to reach the quarter-finals for the eighth year in a row.
It turned out to be a good day for Murray as arch-rival Novak Djokovic struggled in his match against South African Kevin Anderson on Court One. Djokovic recovered from two sets down to level before bad light stopped play at 9pm. The decisive fifth set will be played today, and whatever the result the winner will surely carry the effects of their struggle into the next round.
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Back on Centre Court Murray dealt well with the threat posed by big-serving Karlovic, who is 6ft 11in tall.
Karlovic, 36, smashed down 29 aces but Murray was up to the task and responded with a series of superb passing shots and lobs - which was no mean feat against a man of Karlovic's height.
Murray appeared to have the match under control and kept Karlovic at bay to take the first two sets, but he then dropped serve as the third set headed towards a tie-break to hand Karlovic a lifeline.
The key moment then came at 3-3 in the fourth set when Hawk-Eye judged a Karlovic volley to have drifted just wide, allowing Murray to break serve. This time he made no mistake and served out to win the fourth set and book his place in the last eight.
Murray will be unconcerned by the manner of his victory, says Barry Flatman in The Times. "To be hyper-critical, Murray temporarily allowed Karlovic an opportunity to get back into the match by not taking the third set, when he momentarily let his concentration lapse serving at 5-6. But the Scot is not a man who delights in looking back over a succession of neat wins in straight sets.
"Murray simply cares about winning and in the end he did that in style."
Afterwards, the Scot accepted that it had been an "incredibly difficult match" thanks to the power of the Croat's serve. "It was mentally tiring. Maybe not as tiring physically due to the points being so quick.
"You've always got to be ready to take your chances. It's about getting the balance right and getting through. It wasn't going to be the best tennis, it was about getting through."
Murray will now face the unseeded Vasek Pospisil in Wednesday's quarter-final. The Canadian knocked out James Ward on Saturday and followed that up by recovering from two sets down to beat the highly-rated Viktor Troicki in five sets. The pair have met three times with Murray coming out on top each time.
