Top seed Carlos Alcaraz roared into the Wimbledon quarter-finals with a formidable display of firepower to down big-serving Italian dark horse Matteo Berrettini on Monday.
The Spaniard was beaten to the punch in the opening set but raised his game to claim a comfortable 3-6, 6-3, 6-3, 6-3 win to the delight of the Centre Court crowd.
He will now face a battle of the 20-year-old's against Denmark's sixth seed Holger Rune for a place in the semi-finals.
Berrettini was unseeded after an injury-plagued year but is a potent threat on grasscourts having reached the final two years ago when he lost to Novak Djokovic.
He came out firing huge serves and forehands and rocked Alcaraz with a decisive service break to take the opener.
Berrettini could not maintain the intensity though and Alcaraz raised his tempo to seize control early in the second set, running his opponent ragged at times.
He broke serve in the third game of the second set on the way to levelling the match and did the same in the third set with a thumping smash as he picked up speed.
A delay to close the roof midway through the fourth set as the light faded offered Berrettini some respite but Alcaraz quickly completed the win after the resumption.
Alcaraz was stopped by another Italian, Jannik Sinner, at the same stage last year, but having reached the quarter-finals for the first time he already has his eyes on going further.
"I'm hungry for more," Alcaraz said on Centre Court. "It's something I really wanted. I came in this year with that goal -- get into the quarter-final, I'm wanting more.
"I want to play the final here and maybe win it."
Any doubts that Alcaraz would struggle to adapt to grass have now been banished for good.
He won the pre-Wimbledon warm-up event at Queen's Club in what was only his third tournament on grass and his rapid learning curve shows no sign of levelling off.
Against 27-year-old Berrettini, his extraordinary all-round game was demonstrated in emphatic fashion.
The forehand proved more than a match for the Italian's, his movement was sublime and his serve potent.
One minute he was feathering delicate drop shots to stretch his opponent and the next he was producing volleys the likes of Pete Sampras or Boris Becker would be proud of.
He had the crowd on their feet at regular intervals, one shot in particular having fans rubbing their eyes in disbelief as he chased down an angled Berrettini slice that looked a sure-fire winner and played a shot around the net post.
There were a couple of late hiccups when he sent a volley long on one match point and double faulted on another but he sealed victory as a weary Berrettini hit a forehand wide, the Spaniard raising his fists and roaring in delight.
"I knew that it was going to be really tough. Matteo is a great player, he made the final here on grass," said Alcaraz.
His clash with Rune, who is a week older, will be the lowest combined age for a Wimbledon men's quarter-final in the professional era.
It promises fireworks.
"The young guys are reaching their dreams, coming here and playing the quarter-finals together -- it's great for tennis," said Alcaraz.
With eight-time champion Roger Federer retired and his great rival Rafa Nadal set to join him next year, few would disagree.
Swiatek continues hunt for maiden grasscourt title in Svitolina clash
Iga Swiatek's new-found love of grass will face a stern test when she meets Elina Svitolina in the Wimbledon quarter-finals on Tuesday as the world number one continues her bid to conquer the final frontier and win her first title on the surface.
Four-time Grand Slam champion Swiatek has gone from strength to strength at Wimbledon this year, reaching the last eight for the first time despite her preparations for the tournament being less than ideal.
The Pole, who won her third French Open title last month, suffered from fever and possible food poisoning before the start of Wimbledon and had to withdraw from the semi-finals of the Bad Homburg Open.
But she recovered in time for the grasscourt Grand Slam, winning her first three matches in straight sets before saving two match points to claw out a 6-7(4) 7-6(2) 6-3 victory against Olympic champion Belinda Bencic in the fourth round.
"It gives me belief. I don't know, more experience, for sure, because Belinda is a really, really great player," top seed Swiatek, a former junior champion at Wimbledon, told reporters on Sunday.
"It wasn't an easy match for sure today. I'm just happy that I won it because it feels I'm going in the right direction."
Wimbledon debutant Eubanks ends Tsitsipas's challenge in fourth round
It was a case of better late than never for Christopher Eubanks as the gentle American giant was roared on to a 3-6 7-6(4) 3-6 6-4 6-4 win over Greek fifth seed Stefanos Tsitsipas in the fourth round of Wimbledon on Monday.
Eubanks, 27, is no spring chicken but after finally making it into the Wimbledon main draw for the first time this year he has made it into the quarter-finals of a Grand Slam for the first time with a rousing win over the Greek maverick.
The 24-year-old Tsitsipas, who was in action for the seventh day running after having to put up with numerous rain disruptions during his matches, was bidding to become the first Greek man to reach the last eight at the All England Club.
He played his part in the highly entertaining encounter, often picking himself up off the ground to hit a winning shot.
But he met his match in the 6-foot-7 inch (2.01-metre) Eubanks, whose cheering squad included his occasional mixed doubles partner and compatriot Coco Gauff.
Tsitsipas broke back to level for 3-3 in the final set but could then only watch in awe as the world number 43 hit a stupendous backhand down the line in the next game to again nose ahead 4-3.
With the finishing line in sight at 5-4 up, Eubanks survived two break points before he belted down his 12th ace to bring up match point and a rip-roaring forehand winner finished off the job.
While Gauff whipped out her phone to record her friend's greatest ever triumph, Eubanks was beaming from ear-to-ear as he gave the Court Two crowd a double thumbs up fist pump.
"I feel like I am living a dream right now, this is absolutely insane," he said after setting up a quarter-final showdown with Russian third seed Daniil Medvedev.
"It's surreal, it's unbelievable, I can't believe it," added the American after notching up his ninth straight win on grass.
A few weeks after claiming he hated playing on the surface, Eubanks made a u-turn on that assessment.
"The grass and I have had a very strenuous relationship over the years but right now it's my best friend," joked Eubanks, who won his first ATP title on grass in Mallorca in the run-up to Wimbledon.
For Tsitsipas, Monday's defeat will be a bitter pill to swallow, especially after he had to overcome two Grand Slam champions in the shape of Dominic Thiem and Andy Murray just to reach the third round.
Jabeur crushes Kvitova to set up rematch of 2022 Rybakina final
Ons Jabeur set up a quarter-final repeat of last year’s Wimbledon showpiece against Elena Rybakina after crushing out-of-sorts former champion Petra Kvitova 6-0 6-3 in a Centre Court demolition job on Monday.
Her crowd-pleasing variety of slice, drop shot and change of pace and angle left the 2011 and 2014 champion flailing from the start as the Tunisian raced through the first set in 22 minutes.
The ninth-seeded Czech had the briefest of recoveries in the second but it did not last and Jabeur marched on.
"Great, great match. I'm very happy with the performance, playing someone that maybe I don't like to play a lot," Jabeur said. "Hopefully I can keep it going."
Sixth seed Jabeur had to come from a set down against Bianca Andreescu on Saturday but had no such problems on a blustery afternoon as she took command from the start.
Kvitova struggled to deal with the lack of pace coming her way, while her own serves were erratic.
The fans loved the flashback that the hugely popular Jabeur brings to the table, where deception and angle can overcome sheer power, but even they seemed stunned at the one-sided nature of the match.
Kvitova briefly returned to the locker room in an attempt to reset for the second set but her radar remained badly off and she was soon 4-1 down having conceded a double break.
The Czech did, finally, string two games together but her body language suggested that she never really believed she could change the course of the match and Jabeur finished in fitting style by breaking to love.
Third-seeded Moscow-born Kazakh Rybakina, who beat Jabeur in three sets in last year’s final, went through after Brazilian Beatriz Haddad Maia retired at 4-1 down in the first set with a back injury.
"I'm probably going for my revenge," Jabeur said of facing Rybakina on Wednesday. "It was a difficult final last year. It's going to bring a lot of memories."
Having won the first set a year ago with the glory of being the first African or Arabic woman to take a grand slam title so close, Jabeur said the first few weeks after the defeat were very painful.
"The good thing about it is I know I gave it everything," she said. "But I was really exhausted, emotionally. I wanted to keep pushing but I felt little bit empty.
"Maybe I should have done what my coach kept telling me, to stick more to the plan, to do certain things, even though I was thinking something else in that match.
"This time I'm hoping to play like today and just get the win. You can see she's like 'boom boom' all the time. My priority really to stick 100% to the plan, play more freely, just think about each point and not the result."
The defeat continues Kvitova’s Wimbledon struggles, having not gone past the fourth round at the All England Club since the second of her victories nine years ago.
"She has a very good touch so you never know where the slice is going, if it's a dropshot or it's pretty long one," said the Czech. "But I missed so many balls today.
"I lost pretty quickly, which didn't happen to me often. It was a too-quick match. I've been just destroyed. That's how it is and that's how I take it."
Rune's stature keeps growing as he downs Dimitrov to reach Wimbledon quarters
Fearless Dane Holger Rune's stature in world tennis continued to grow on Monday as he stayed calm and collected in the face of adversity to ride out a 3-6 7-6(6) 7-6(4) 6-3 fourth round win over perennial underachiever Grigor Dimitrov at Wimbledon.
The Danish sixth seed missed out on converting any of the six break points he earned in the opening set, and then found himself a set and 4-2 down after surrendering his own serve with two successive double faults.
Through all that trouble and strife, he never lost belief and the 20-year-old came storming back with some phenomenal shot making as he became the first Dane in 65 years to reach the Wimbledon quarter-finals.
It was little wonder he was left screaming into the skies and thumping his chest after the near 3-1/2 hour battle ended when Dimitrov's backhand floated into the tramlines on Rune's first match point.
"It was a crazy match," summed up a hugely relieved Rune. "Grigor pushed me to the limit."
While Rune can look forward to a battle of the 20-year-olds against world number one Carlos Alcaraz in the quarter-finals, for Dimitrov Monday proved to be another huge let down.
Once tipped as a future Grand Slam champion, the 32-year-old has not even made it into the final of any of the four majors. As he clocked up his 51st Grand Slam appearance at Wimbledon, he knew that only three semi-final showings made for a poor return.
But if he harboured hopes that this might be the week when he will finally go all the way, Rune handed him a brutal reality check.
For a set and half Dimitrov looked like he would back up his win over American 10th seed Frances Tiafoe by knocking out another Top 10 contender.
Such was his determination to win the points that mattered, he kept slipping and sliding over as he chased down every ball and still managed get back on his feet to punch away the winners.
But sustaining that level of intensity for over three hours was a nigh on impossible task and once Rune unexpectedly broke back in the second set to level it a 4-4, it always seemed that the Dane's younger and fresher legs would carry him over the finishing line.
Rune puffed out his cheeks in relief when he won an electrifying 19-shot rally to seal the second set.
The two went toe-to-toe in an absorbing third set, with neither earning a break point. But a moment of misjudgement at 5-3 down in the tiebreak proved to be Dimitrov's undoing.
Convinced that Rune's shot had landed beyond the baseline, the Bulgarian stopped the point to challenge Hawkeye. But it seemed that Dimitrov's eyesight had let him down badly as Hawkeye called the ball in, handing three set points to his opponent.
Rune converted the second, ironically also stopping the ball in its tracks to challenge Hawkeye - and his eyesight proved to be much sharper.
That appeared to leave Dimitrov deflated and when he surrendered his serve in the sixth game of the fourth set by producing successive double faults, it was effectively game over.
