PLAYER OF THE DAY: Gilles Muller – the 34-year-old world No.26 from Luxembourg sent shockwaves through the All England Club with a dramatic, near-five-hour five set win over French Open champion Rafael Nadal.
STAT OF THE DAY: Top-seeded titleholder Andy Murray and Sydney-born women’s seventh seed Johanna Konta giving Britain quarter-final representation in the men’s and women’s singles for the first time in 44 years.
QUOTE OF THE DAY: “It’s great. A lot of people in Britain who like tennis won’t enjoy watching me play,” a typically dry Murray said keeping his end of the bargain with a straight-sets win over Benoit Paire to set up a last-eight clash with American Sam Querrey.
HOW THE AUSSIES FARED: Top seed John Peers and his Finnish partner Henri Kontinen advanced to the men’s doubles quarter-finals with a 6-3 3-6 6-1 6-4 win over Hugo Nys and Antonio Sancic but Sam Groth lost his third-round match with Swede Robert Lindstedt 6-7 (9-7) 7-6 (7-4) 7-5 7-5. Peers also teamed with German Sabine Lisicki for a 6-1 6-4 second-round mixed doubles win, but Anastasia Rodionova lost her match with former Russian compatriot Mikhail Elgin 4-6 6-3 6-4 to Barbora Krejcikova and Kiwi Michael Venus.
French Open runners-up Ashleigh Barty and Casey Dellacqua beat Elise Mertens and Demi Schuurs 6-1 7-6 (8-6) to move into the women’s doubles quarter-finals, while there were mixed results for the junior boys with Blake Ellis upsetting seventh seed Trent Bryde in three sets and Thomas Bosancic bowing out in the first round.
TALKING POINT: Whether or not officials should have moved Novak Djokovic’s scheduled fourth-round match against Adrian Mannarino from Court 1 to Centre Court rather than postponing it because of the Muller-Nadal epic.
TOURNAMENT SUMMARY: It’s advantage Andy Murray and Marin Cilic, the two major beneficiaries from Nadal’s departure in the top half of the draw, while Roger Federer cruised into the quarter-finals for a record 15th time with a straight-sets defeat of Grigor Dimitrov.
Former finalist Garbine Muguruza blew the women’s draw open with a three-set fourth-round ousting of world No.1 Angelique Kerber, but five-time champion Venus Williams, second seed Simona Halep and Konta are all also through the quarter-finals.