Top seed Novak Djokovic and defending champion Andy Murray have closed in on a mouth-watering Wimbledon semi-final duel after easing into the last eight at a wet and wild All England Club.
Djokovic reached the quarter-finals for the sixth successive year with a 6-3 6-4 7-6 win over French 14th seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga.
The 2011 champion will be playing in his 21st successive Grand Slam last-eight when he faces Croatia’s Marin Cilic for a place in the semi-finals.
Djokovic leads Cilic 9-0 in career meetings while his win on Monday was his 13th in 18 clashes against two-time Wimbledon semi-finalist Tsonga, and 11th in a row.
“In the third set he started to serve very well, very efficient, very strong. It was important to hang in there, get into the tie-break,” said Djokovic, who fired 44 winners.
“I am feeling good, I had two days off, I could recover a little bit. In the first week I had a couple of tough matches.”
On facing Cilic, the Serb added: “He knows how to play on grass and definitely he has nothing to lose so I look forward to a tough one.”
Cilic reached the quarter-finals for the first time with a 7-6 6-4 6-4 win over France’s Jeremy Chardy.
Third-seeded Murray reached his seventh successive Wimbledon quarter-final with a 6-4 6-3 7-6 win over South Africa’s Kevin Anderson, hitting 11 aces and 49 winners.
He next faces Bulgarian 11th seed Grigor Dimitrov who reached his first Wimbledon quarter-final with a 6-4 7-6 6-2 win over Argentina’s Leonardo Mayer.
The 23-year-old Dimitrov is the first Bulgarian man to make the Wimbledon last-eight but has a 3-1 losing record against Murray.
“All the matches are tough. Everyone in the quarter-finals of the slams is playing top tennis,” said 27-year-old Murray.
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“I have to concentrate on my side of the court and if I play well, I will make it tough for him.”
Just as on Saturday, rain brought havoc to the schedule on Monday.
All the last 16 men’s and women’s matches are traditionally played on the second Monday but seven will now take place on Tuesday instead.
Stan Wawrinka was stunned that he had to play his third round tie, which fell victim to Saturday’s downpours, on Monday in a scheduling nightmare which will force him to play five matches in seven days if he is to win the title.
The third-seeded Australian Open champion defeated Uzbekistan’s Denis Istomin 6-3 6-3 6-4 to reach the fourth round for the first time since 2009.
Wawrinka will now play his fourth round on Tuesday against 19th seed Feliciano Lopez of Spain who also waited until Monday to see off John Isner, the ninth seeded American, 6-7 7-6 7-6 7-5.
Victory on Tuesday would mean a quarter-final on Wednesday before getting back on schedule for semi-final day on Friday and a potential final date on Sunday.
“I was disappointed. I was expecting them to move matches, move maybe juniors or doubles, to make my match or Isner/Lopez’s match first on when they started at 5pm or 6pm again when it stopped raining,” said Wawrinka.
“But you cannot do anything. They do what they want and you just follow. They don’t listen to the players. They just do what they think is good for them.”
In the remaining third round match to be completed, Japan’s 10th seed Kei Nishikori saw off Italian Simone Bolelli 3-6 6-3 4-6 7-6 6-4.
In his maiden last-16 appearance, Nishikori will face Canadian eighth seed Milos Raonic on Tuesday.
In he women’s draw Russia’s Ekaterina Makarova has sent former finalist Agnieszka Radwanska crashing to a surprise exit from Wimbledon, while giant-killer Barbora Zahlavova Strycova claimed another famous scalp.
Makarova, the 22nd seed, had never been past the third round in her six previous appearances at Wimbledon.
But the 26-year-old, a quarter-finalist at the Australian and French Opens last year, destroyed the world number four 6-3 6-0 and will play Czech 23rd seed Lucie Safarova for a place in the semi-finals.
Radwanska’s exit means three of the top four seeds have been eliminated from the women’s draw following the defeats of Williams and Li Na.
Earlier, Zahlavova Strycova moved into the last eight with a 6-2 7-5 victory against former world number one Caroline Wozniacki.
Zahlavova Strycova, the world number 43, had enjoyed the best win of her career in the previous round when she defeated Chinese second seed Li and she added Danish 16th seed Wozniacki to her list of upsets.
The 28-year-old, who served a six-month ban for doping last year, will play compatriot Petra Kvitova for a place in the semi-finals.
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Asked about her revival after the drugs suspension, Zahlavova Strycova admitted she almost quit after testing positive for banned stimulant sibutramine at the 2012 Luxembourg Open.
“I didn’t want to play again because I felt like it’s a little bit unfair,” she said.
“In the first two months, I didn’t want to come back. It was tough, but on the other hand, it also brings me some positive things. I am seeing the sport a little bit different now. And here I am.”
Sixth seed Kvitova, who won the Wimbledon title in 2011, routed world number 61 Peng Shuai of China 6-3 6-2 in just one hour.
The 24-year-old has now reached the last eight at Wimbledon for five successive years.
Three of the four quarter-finalists in the bottom half of the draw are Czech after Safarova ended the fairytale run of world number 175 Tereza Smitkova, a 19-year-old who was the lowest ranked woman left in the tournament, with a 6-0 6-2 victory in just 47 minutes.
Safarova will face Makarova in her first Wimbledon quarter-final appearance, which will also be the 27-year-old’s first last-eight clash at a Grand Slam since 2007.
Canadian star Eugenie Bouchard also booked her first appearance in the quarter-finals as the 13th seed defeated Alize Cornet 7-6 7-5.
The 20-year-old underlined her growing reputation by seeing off French 25th seed Cornet, who had caused one of the great Wimbledon upsets in the previous round when she defeated world number one Williams.
After reaching the semi-finals at the Australian and French Opens already this year, Bouchard will faces either world number five Maria Sharapova or German ninth seed Angelique Kerber in the last eight after their match was delayed for a day by London’s inclement weather.
“It’s great to be in the quarters at Wimbledon, that’s what I work so hard for,” Bouchard said. “But I want to go one step further so I have to keep focused.”
Sabine Lisicki, last year’s beaten finalist, finally downed former world number one Ana Ivanovic on Monday to give herself a place in the last 16.
In a third round match called off for bad light on Saturday, and then interrupted by rain early on Monday, the German 19th seed eventually beat the Serbian 11th seed 6-4 3-6 6-1.
She faces Kazakhstan’s Yaroslava Shvedova on Tuesday for a place in the quarter-finals.
How the Aussies fared
Men’s doubles, 2nd round
Chris Guccione/Lleyton Hewitt bt 7-Lukasz Kubot (POL)/Robert Lindstedt (SWE) 7-5 6-3 6-4
Women’s doubles, 2nd round
6-Ashleigh Barty/Casey Dellacqua bt Kimiko Date-Krumm (JPN)/Barbora Zahlavova Strycova (CZE) 6-4 6-2
Jarmila Gajdosova/Arina Rodionova lost to Andrea Petkovic (GER)/Magdalena Rybarikova (SVK) 6-2 7-5
