Britain's Andy Murray survived some dicey moments before beating Swiss Stanislas Wawrinka 2-6, 6-3, 6-3, 5-7, 6-3 for a place in the quarter-finals in Wimbledon men's singles on Monday.
In a match played with the Centre Court roof closed due to fears of thunderstorm interruptions, Wawrinka got off to a flier by surging to a 4-0 lead before sealing the opener in 34 minutes.
Third seed Murray levelled the match before a key break in game seven helped him to the third set and appeared to hand him the momentum before Wawrinka again refused to lie down and took it to a decider.
Murray broke in game eight of the fifth set and then held serve in front of an ecstatic crowd and now faces Spanish wildcard Juan Carlos Ferrero for a place in the semifinals.
"I was surprised we started under the roof...it was dry outside," Murray said when asked about playing indoors. "It was very heavy and very humid and I was sweating a lot right from the start. I felt like I had been in a bath.
"It kind of slowed it down a lot, and I struggled to serve because it wasn't coming off the strings," he added.
Swiss master Roger Federer began the Centre Court programme with temperatures soaring to 31 degrees Celsius but retained his cool to beat Sweden's Robin Soderling, the man he overcome to claim an emotional French Open title this month.
Federer, who has his eyes on a record 15th grand slam, may need body armour in the quarterfinals when he meets Croatian ace machine Ivo Karlovic who blew away Fernando Verdasco in four sets to reach his first grand slam quarterfinal.
Other quarterfinals will pit Lleyton Hewitt of Australia against sixth seed Andy Roddick from United States and German Tommy Haas versus Serb Novak Djokovic.
Women's play continued with Williams sisters' show. Second seed Serena, beaten in last year's final by Venus, thrashed Slovakia's Daniela Hantuchova 6-3, 6-1 while Venus was required to play just eight games to get past sobbing Serb Ana Ivanovic, who quit with a thigh injury after little more than half an hour.
There is a sense of inevitability about another Williams family showdown on Saturday. They simply look unstoppable.
"I'm a control freak," added Venus, who now has Agnieszka Radwanska in her sights after the Pole ended the run of 17-year-old American Melanie Oudin 6-4, 7-5. "I love controlling. That's how I was taught to play."
"I don't want to go home. I feel I'm just getting more serious," added Serena, who belted 28 winners on her way to a quarterfinal against Belarussian Victoria Azarenka.
World number one Dinara Safina reached the Wimbledon quarterfinals for the first time where she will play German Sabine Lisicki, entering the record books in the process by becoming the first player to win a match under the Centre Court roof.
(Xinhua News Agency June 30, 2009)
