Titleholder Petra Kvitova and four-times champion Serena Williams have survived three-set scares to set up a blockbuster Wimbledon quarter-final.

Both stars stood within two games of elimination before squeezing out tight victories on wet and windy start to so-called Magic Monday at the All England Club.

All 16 men’s and women’s fourth-round matches were scheduled and early on it looked like two of the game’s biggest drawcards were about to crash out.

Williams eventually shook off Kazakh sensation Yaroslava Schvedova 6-1 2-6 7-5 to reach her 10th Wimbledon quarter-final.

Kvitova awaits the sixth seed on Tuesday after the Czech staged her own fightback to beat 2010 French Open champion Francesca Schiavone 4-6 7-5 6-1.

“I haven’t played her for a while. I’m looking forward to it,” Williams said.

“I’ve got nothing to lose. Bottom line, I know I can play better. If I couldn’t, that would be a problem.”

Williams beat the then unseeded Kvitova 7-6 (7-5) 6-2 in the 2010 Wimbledon semi-finals before going on to win her 13th grand slam title.

But the 30-year-old remains stranded one major shy of fellow American great Pete Sampras’s 14 and is desperate to break the drought.

Williams unleashed a Wimbledon-record 23 aces to edge past China’s Jheng Jie in the third round and needed 12 more to see off the streaky Shvedova.

Schvedova had been the talk of the tournament after becoming the first woman ever to win all 24 points in a set during her third-round rout of French Open runner-up Sara Errani.

But it took just two rallies to confirm the Kazakh wildcard wouldn’t be repeating any such “golden set” heroics against a a former world No.1.

Unable to cope with Williams’s devastating power off the ground, Schvedova sprayed a forehand wide on the second point of the match as the former world No.1 motored to a 5-0 lead.

The 65th-ranked Schvedova finally held in the sixth game, but Williams still needed only 26 minutes to claim the opening set.

Williams seemed in total command only to lose her way in the second set.

Schvedova reeled off four straight games to draw level at a set apiece and stayed with Williams until 5-5 in the decider.

Alas, two double-faults and a backhand error brought the wildcard unstuck and handed Williams the decisive break in the 11th game.

As rain threatened a postponement, the Williams calmly closed out the match after one hour, 54 minutes.

Kvitova struggled to find her range against Schiavone and was only two points away from allowing the Italian to serve out the match in the second set.

But after hanging tough, the fourth seed rolled through the deciding set as Schiavone self-destructed following an angry exchange with the chair umpire.

With light rain falling, after a minor delay in the start to proceedings on a grey and gloomy day at SW19, Schiavone was demanding to have play stopped at 1-0 down in t third set.

But with all other outside courts going ahead, the 24th seed was forced to continue – and it didn’t end well for the Italian.

Earlier, Austrian Tamira Paszek continued her great run to be the first woman through to the quarter-finals after a 6-2 6-2 defeat of another Italian, 21st seed Roberta Vinci.