Defending champion Carlos Alcaraz resists red-hot Andrey Rublev to reach quarter-finals and stay on course for third successive Wimbledon title.
Carlos Alcaraz came through a ferocious fourth-round firefight against Andrey Rublev to win 6-7(5), 6-3, 6-4, 6-4 on Centre Court and keep his bid for a third successive Wimbledon title on track on Sunday.
The Spanish second seed stuttered in his opening three rounds but found his best form to eventually subdue an inspired Rublev who once again came up short against the very best.
Rublev rocked Alcaraz to lead 4-1 in the opener only to be pegged back but the Russian produced some astonishing tennis to snatch the tiebreak and move ahead.
Alcaraz knew he was in a scrap but never looked ruffled and levelled the match after Rublev double-faulted on a break point.
Rublev continued to throw everything in his arsenal at the champion in the third set but paid for not taking some early break points as Alcaraz found another gear.
Alcaraz looked impregnable in the fourth set and a single break of serve was enough to seal a 22nd successive match win and set up a last-eight clash with Britain's Cameron Norrie.
"Andrey is one of the most powerful players we have on Tour and is so aggressive with the ball. It's really difficult to face him, he forces you to the limit on each point," Alcaraz, bidding to become only the fourth man to win back-to-back French Open and Wimbledon titles multiple times, said on court.
"Really happy with the way I moved and played intelligent and smart tactically. A really good match all round."
With so many seeds having fallen early, this was the first match between top-20 players in the men's singles this year and it did not disappoint as the quality scaled rare heights.
Rublev, 27, has barely been outside of the top 10 since 2022 but has never got close to winning a Grand Slam, losing all 10 quarter-finals that he has contested.
The 14th seed must have sighed when he saw Alcaraz in his way in the fourth round, but he came out in positive fashion, off-loading rockets at the five-time Grand Slam champion.
With the roof closed after earlier thunderstorms the noise of the ball striking strings sounded like rifle shots.
Rublev hit harder, then harder still and at 5-5 in the opening set launched an outrageous backhand winner off a full-blooded Alcaraz forehand and then followed with a powerful forehand of his own to the baseline to move a set ahead.
He barely did anything wrong after that but Alcaraz, finally clicking into gear after three scratchy wins, showed why taking the title off him will be such a tough task.
The turning point came at 3-3 in the third set when Rublev, attempting to save a break point, sent Alcaraz sliding from side to side with a barrage of power only for the Spaniard to whip a forehand cross court winner, before cupping his ear to the crowd who rose as one to salute the moment of genius.
Rublev stuck manfully to his task but he was powerless to prevent an 11th loss from 11 matches against top-five opponents at a Grand Slam.
Norrie sees off Jarry in thriller
Briton Cameron Norrie came through a severe mental and physical examination from big-serving Nicolas Jarry to beat the Chilean 6-3, 7-6(4), 6-7(7), 6-7(5), 6-3 in a classic match under the roof on Court One to reach the quarterfinals.
Norrie, the World No. 61, a semifinalist in 2022 and now the last home player left in the tournament, looked set for a routine victory when he had match point in the third-set tiebreak, but Jarry refused to buckle.
He saved it and won the set, took the next in another tiebreak, before Norrie, who did not drop serve all match, made an early breakthrough in the fifth and held on for a superb win.
"I just had to keep fighting," said Norrie.
"I was thinking I should have gone T (with his serve) for about for about an hour and then he hung in there. I just wanted to keep taking care of my serve and I did that and I hung tough when I needed to."
Jarry trailed Holger Rune by two sets in the first round, having gone out at the same stage in six previous slams, but he is delighted to be back playing after suffering with vestibular neuritis, a nerve condition that causes severe vertigo and dizziness.
Norrie, scampering for everything, grabbed the key break of serve in the first set and the Briton took the second in a tiebreak. He had a match point in the third after a Jarry double fault, but the Chilean followed that with an ace and took the set at the first opportunity.
The 6ft 7ins (201cm) Jarry, who had got past the third round of a Grand Slam only once before, forced a third successive tiebreak, which he secured with an ace, one of 46 on Sunday that extended his tournament-leading tally to 111.
Fritz advances as Thompson retires hurt
American fifth seed Taylor Fritz had little trouble in reaching his third Wimbledon quarter-final after his Australian opponent Jordan Thompson retired with a thigh injury at 6-1, 3-0 down in their fourth-round meeting on Sunday.
Thompson, who came to the All England Club with a back issue, called for a medical timeout midway through the second set due to an apparent right thigh problem and after three more points decided to call it a day.
Fritz raced through the first set, hardly breaking sweat against his exhausted opponent who had played five-set matches in the first and second rounds and four sets in the previous round.
As the rain began hammering down on the Court One roof, so Fritz began raining down his serve, clinching the first set off the back of three aces.
Fritz broke Thompson easily in the opening game of the second and it was clear the Australian was struggling with his movement. The medical timeout after Fritz clinched another break only delayed the inevitable as the match was soon brought to a premature end.
The 27-year-old Fritz, who reached his maiden Grand Slam final last year at the U.S. Open, continues chasing America's dream of a first male winner at Wimbledon since Pete Sampras in 2000 when he next faces 17th-seeded Russian Karen Khachanov.
Fritz has never gone beyond the quarterfinals at Wimbledon but is the dominant player on grass this season having won titles in Stuttgart and Eastbourne.
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