The 3rd seed, under relentless pressure to become the first British player to win the Wimbledon men's crown for 73 years, had been in serious trouble early on against Wawrinka. These two men are good friends and regular practice partners, but there was nothing friendly about the fashion in which Wawrinka went after Murray in that opening set, serving brilliantly and hammering ground strokes which reduced Murray to frustration.
Roger Federer trod a 6-4, 7-6 (7-5), 7-6 (7-5) reassuringly familiar pathway (rematch of this month’s French Open final) into the quarter-finals when he defeated Sweden's Robin Soderling in their Centre Court. It was Roger’s 11th successive victory over Soderling.
Even though the result was never really in doubt, it always felt like a close match, with Soderling riding high on a potent serve, which was broken only once. Unfortunately, he never captured the Federer delivery.Lleyton Hewitt, the 2002 Wimbledon champion, struggled through the first two sets against Radek Stepanek, he came back reinvigorated after a medical timeout, and even a break for rain could not stop him. Hewitt emerged victorious 4-6, 2-6, 6-1, 6-2, 6-2 after two hours 54 minutes and his first Grand Slam quarter-final in three years.
Stepanek had injury problems of his own, had endured two draining five-setters in his second and third round matches. Yet it was Stepanek who started the match full of energy. Hewitt showed typical spirit in saving four set points but a fifth proved too much.
Roddick won 7-6 (7-4), 6-4, 6-3 in one hour and 48 minutes and is now one victory short of his third Wimbledon semi-final. Roddick turned Berdych’s form upside down in his win. Roddick blew all that away with a strong and accurate hitting performance that justifies his optimism before Wimbledon started.
Berdych had come into the last 16 without dropping a set, something he had not achieved in a Grand Slam since 2007. This showed that he was finding his feet again on grass and he might even have fancied his chances of making the quarter-finals.
Fourth seed Novak Djokovic moved comfortably into the quarter-finals with a 6-2, 6-4, 6-1 win over unseeded Israeli Dudi Sela. He is creeping through the draw without fanfare, produced a solid display, firing off 11 aces and 30 winners.
Sela was clearly enjoying the moment in what has been the best year of his career. He also reached the third round, as a qualifier, at this year’s Australian Open.
It was the giant Croatian Ivo Karlovic, pattern of aces(he served up 35 aces today) and very few rallies - in which the tiebreaks became all-important and he prevailed 7-6 (7-5), 6-7 (4-6), 6-4, 7-6 (11-9) in three hours and one minute against crowd darling Fernando Verdasco. This tie was also destined to be a close-fought battle of very few chances.
The crowd simply rejoiced when either player grabbed a return point, to break up the love service games that were becoming so common. Both players then had opportunities to win the tiebreak.
Juan Carlos Ferrero became the first wild card since Goran Ivanisevic in 2001 to make the quarter-finals at Wimbledon after clinically dispatching eighth seed Gilles Simon 7-6 (7-4), 6-3, 6-2. The Spaniard played solid tennis throughout the contest and stood firm.
Simon, meanwhile, had been on a terrible run coming into the tournament, barely able to string two wins together over the past few months, but he put this behind him to make a run to the fourth round here, dropping only one set on the way.
Tommy Haas needed just three sets to get past Igor Andreev 7-6 (10-8), 6-4, 6-4 and into the quarter-finals. It had started off as a tense, tightly fought match. But using his greater experience, Haas managed to break away by taking the critical points in this their first meeting on grass.
This was a match of big-hitters, with both players regularly sending down serves in excess of 120mph. Both had survived five-setters in previous rounds but any chance of that happening disappeared as Haas grew in confidence and Andreev faded as the match went on.
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