Australia's Alex de Minaur is in injury strife as Novak Djokovic awaits, Elina Svitolina fights back tears on a sad day for Ukraine, and Taylor Fritz breaks the unbreakable serve on his way to the quarterfinals.
Here are the main talking points from day eight at Wimbledon.
1. Injured De Minaur through but Novak awaits
Australia's Alex de Minaur has reached the first Wimbledon quarterfinal of his career after holding his nerve to defeat Arthur Fils in four sets, but concerns remain ahead of a showdown with Novak Djokovic.
Two years after blowing a two-set lead and two match points when on the brink of reaching the quarterfinals, Alex de Minaur held his nerve as a horror repeat threatened against Arthur Fils.
De Minaur put his fans on Court 1 — and late night television viewers back home — through the wringer as he dropped the third set, but showed grit to take the fourth on his second match point.
His 6-2, 6-4, 4-6, 6-3 win, in just shy of three hours, booked a spot in the last eight against Novak Djokovic. The concern now is whether he will be fully fit for that challenge having appeared to pull up lame after playing an angled stop volley to win the match.
Asked about it on court, he replied: "I'll be alright. I'll find a way."
The ninth seed later clarified he had "jarred" his hip playing the forehand that set up the winner and it was "a little bit ginger", but added, "it's probably a little bit of a scare more than anything".
"I'm feeling pretty decent. I've done my recovery. I'm sure I'll be feeling great tomorrow," he said.
"I'm super proud of myself to be in the quarterfinals at Wimbledon. You can count on me going out there, trying my hardest and playing my heart out."
The quarterfinal will be only his third in grand slams, but also his second in succession after reaching the same stage at Roland-Garros last month.
The Australian number one looked set to continue his sprint through the Wimbledon field when he raced to a two-set lead in barely an hour, and followed up with an early break in the third.
But from 4-2 up the Sydneysider tightened up and lost four successive games, and the set.
Inevitably the nightmare of 2022 resurfaced. Then de Minaur blew a two-set lead against another unseeded player, Chilean Cristian Garin, and two match points in the fifth. This time it was different.
"I definitely made it a lot harder than I should have, I couldn't hold my serve [at the end], but I backed my returns," de Minaur said.
2. Ruthless Djokovic destroys Rune, takes aim at Centre Court crowd
Novak Djokovic produced his best display so far at this year's Wimbledon to dispatch Denmark's Holger Rune 6-3, 6-4, 6-2 and reach the quarterfinals before launching a tirade against "disrespectful" fans.
The 37-year-old Serb won the opening 12 points of his Centre Court clash against the 15th seed and apart from a minor blip at the end of the second set was clinical throughout as he reached the last eight here for the 15th time in his career.
But the seven-time champion was riled by some of the crowd who greeted Rune's occasional moments of brilliance with chants of "Ruuune!" and did not hold back in his on-court interview.
"Well to all the fans that have respect and stayed here tonight thank you very much from the bottom of my heart I appreciate it," Djokovic said.
"And to all those people that have chosen to disrespect the player, in this case me, have a goooooood night!"
When the on-court interviewer interjected and suggested the fans had merely been chanting the name of his young opponent, Djokovic begged to differ.
"I don't accept that, no, no, no. I know there they were cheering for Rune but that's an excuse to also boo," he said.
"Listen, I've been on the Tour for more than 20 years. So trust me, I know all the tricks. I know how it works. It's fine. It's fine.
"I focus on respectful people that have respect that paid the ticket to come and watch tonight and love tennis and appreciate the players and the effort they're putting in.
"I've played in much more hostile environments. Trust me, you guys, you guys can't touch me."
It was a strange post-script to a one-sided match in which Djokovic put down a serious statement of intent under the roof, closed again on yet another rainy day in south-west London.
Any doubts about the knee that was operated on after he withdrew from the French Open were dispelled as he glided around the Centre Court turf in his usual silky precise fashion.
Djokovic, bidding to become the first player to win 25 grand slam titles, will contest his record-extending 60th grand slam quarterfinal against de Minaur on Wednesday.
"I'm feeling good," he said.
"Alex is one of the quickest if not the quickest player on the tour. So you know I'm going to have to do a lot of running.
"But I'm enjoying my running still at 37, so I'm OK."
3. Emotional Svitolina wins on 'sad day for Ukrainians'
Elina Svitolina powered into the Wimbledon quarterfinals but the result was secondary for the Ukrainian whose thoughts were with her homeland after Russian missiles hit a children's hospital in Kyiv.
The 21st seed set up a showdown with 2022 champion Elena Rybakina with a 6-2, 6-1 victory over China's Wang Xinyu, but Svitolina was not celebrating after her victory
"It's [an] incredibly sad day today for all the Ukrainians, and it was really difficult for me to really be here in a way and do anything, you know, I just wanted to be in my room and just be there with my emotions, and with everything," she said.
"Today was one of the days where it was even more difficult because, you know, the missile landed on the hospital, and of the kids' hospital, and straightaway, you know, you see the images and everything that happened there, so many kids lost their lives and yeah, it's extremely tough day today.”
Dozens of Russian missiles hit five cities in Ukraine, striking apartment buildings and a children’s hospital in the capital of Kyiv, killing at least 31 people and wounding more than 150, officials said.
Svitolina, who last year matched her best run at the grass-court grand slam by reaching the semifinals, wore a black ribbon on her white top.
"For now, I just want to raise awareness, to raise funds for people in need, to raise support for the kids through my foundation. … So many ways we can help people," she said, "and not only focus on the things we cannot control."
Her opponent in the quarterfinals will be 2022 champion Elena Rybakina, who advanced when seventeenth seed Anna Kalinskaya retired because of an injured right wrist while trailing in the second set.
4. Taylor Fritz breaks the unbreakable as he ends Alexander Zverev's run
Taylor Fritz blew a hole in Alexander Zverev's perfect serving record at this year's Wimbledon by producing a storming comeback from two sets down to topple the German fourth seed with a 4-6, 6-7(4), 6-4, 7-6(3), 6-3 victory to reach the quarterfinals.
For two-and-a-half sets on Monday, Zverev's serve was impenetrable, as it had been during the championships as he notched up 56 successive holds over the course of four matches.
Zverev looked well set to reach the last eight of the grasscourt major for the first time as he led by two sets to love and was locked at 4-4 in the third.
But a double fault from Zverev handed Fritz an unexpected break in the next game and from then on the American's performance caught fire.
He chased down everything the German could throw at him and produced some eye-popping diving winners in the fifth set to leave Zverev staring at defeat.
A backhand winner into an open court left Fritz raising his arm in triumph, while Zverev was left to digest yet another disappointing exit from Wimbledon.
"It was amazing to do that on Centre Court [at] Wimbledon, two sets down, in front of this crowd," said Fritz, who lost to 22-time major champion Rafael Nadal in the quarterfinals at the All England Club two years ago.
"The thing was, I felt like I was still playing really well for being down two sets.
"I was just thinking it would suck to be playing this well and just lose in three straight, so let's take the third … I had that belief."
The match, played with the retractable Centre Court roof shut, was the 35th to go five sets at Wimbledon this year, tying the record for the most at any grand slam in the Open era, which began in 1968.
5. Ostapenko out of this world as she races into quarters
Former French Open champions Jelena Ostapenko and Barbora Krejčíková will clash on Wimbledon's grass after the pair reached the quarterfinals in contrasting fashions.
Ostapenko has been dominant at this year's tournament, conceding less than four games per match on average, her opponents winning a total of 15 games so far.
The Latvian 13th seed Ostapenko, who won in Paris in 2017, raced through her latest encounter 6-2, 6-3 over giant-killer Yulia Putintseva, wrapping up the match under the Court 1 roof in just over an hour.
Kazakhstan's 35th-ranked Putintseva upset top seed Iga Swiatek in the last round, but she was blown off court by Ostapenko, who hit 29 winners to her eight.
"I feel like I'm playing more my game, and especially in deciding moments I'm just going for the shots. I don't care if I miss it," Ostapenko said.
The 27-year-old, Wimbledon junior champion in 2014, beat Krejčíková on grass at Birmingham last year and has looked very comfortable on the surface.
Krejčíková, who secured the 2021 Roland Garros title, took her time to overcome American 11th seed Danielle Collins, who struggled with a leg injury during the second set, winning 7-5, 6-3 in an hour and 42 minutes.
Collins, who is retiring from tennis at the end of the season, lost 12 points in a row, dropping her serve with two double faults, before taking a medical timeout off the court midway through the fifth game.
She returned with her left thigh heavily strapped and won two more games but was clearly in discomfort and the 28-year-old Czech broke once more to win the match and reach her first Wimbledon quarterfinal.
ABC/wires
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