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Defending champion and No. 1 seed Andy Murray reached the Wimbledon quarterfinals for the 10th consecutive year and Roger Federer for the 15th time with straight-sets victories at the All England Club on Monday. The Scot beat Benoit Paire 7-6 (1), 6-4, 6-4 of France before the home crowd on Centre Court in London.
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Federer, the seven-time Wimbledon champion and No. 3 seed from Switzerland, dominated 13th-seeded Grigor Dimitrov of Bulgaria 6-4, 6-2, 6-4 in one hour, 37 minutes, also on Centre Court. Federer now stands alone atop the Open Era list for most Wimbledon quarterfinal appearances.
Murray, who has two Wimbledon titles, is 7-2 in his previous nine quarterfinal matches.
"Today was by far the best I hit the ball, the cleanest I hit the ball," Murray said in his post-match press conference. "I was happy about that. Last couple of days, practice has been really good, as well.
"I didn't feel great during my last match. I didn't feel like I played so well, not loads of rhythm in the first two matches. I definitely felt better today. You know, that's positive moving into the last few days of the tournament."
Murray has now reached at least the quarterfinals at 24 of his past 26 Grand Slam tournaments.
The second Monday at Wimbledon is the busiest in tennis, with all 16 fourth-round matches played on the same day in a schedule that will produce all eight male and all eight female quarterfinalists.
With Johanna Konta reaching the quarterfinals of the women's draw, Great Britain has a representative in the last eight of both singles draws for the first time since 1973.
"I think Jo has done -- it's not just about this tournament, but over the last 18 months, two years, has done great," Murray said. "It's important to have various different role models in the sport, players competing for the biggest events. I do think it makes a difference to the interest in the sport, because a lot of people who follow tennis in this country won't enjoy watching me play. It's true, you know."
Murray will next face American Sam Querrey after the 24th-seeded American defeated Kevin Anderson of South Africa 5-7, 7-6 (5), 6-3, 6-7 (11), 6-3.
Federer has won 18 Grand Slam titles and one more at Wimbledon will give him a record eighth championship at the All England Club.
"He gave me some opportunities and I was happy to take them," Federer said. "But most important was to focus on my game and hope he would feel the pressure.
"I thought it was an excellent match for me. Everyone is in the running still so it's going to be tough to win this. You need a bit of luck, and to feel great. The good news is I feel good and I'm not trying to heal anything."
Querrey had four match points in the fourth-set tiebreak, but Anderson saved all of them to force a decider.
Querrey bounced back in the fifth set, breaking Anderson to lead 4-2 and seeing another match point at 5-2. Anderson again erased the match point, but Querrey converted his sixth opportunity to advance after three hours, 11 minutes.
Querrey finished with 31 aces and won 82 percent of his first-serve points (93 of 113). He fell to 2016 finalist Milos Raonic in last year's quarterfinals but will look to reach a Grand Slam semifinal for the first time against Murray, who leads their head-to-head series 7-1, including a straight-sets win earlier this year at the Australian Open.
Rafael Nadal's Grand Slam set winning streak ended in the fourth round as the Spaniard dropped the opening set of his match against 16th-seeded Gilles Muller of Luxembourg.
Nadal, who won 28 consecutive completed sets at major tournaments, trailed Miller 6-3, 6-4 after dropping the first two sets. Nadal won the next two sets 6-3, 6-4.
Seventh-seeded Marin Cilic of Croatia reached the quarterfinals for the fourth straight year, dominating No. 18 seed Roberto Bautista Agut of Spain 6-2, 6-2, 6-2.
Cilic, who won the U.S. Open in 2014, has never before made the semifinals at the All England Club. He will next face either Nadal of Muller.
Tomas Berdych, the 11th seed from the Czech Republic, advanced to the quarterfinals for the second year in a row after beating eighth-seeded Dominic Thiem of Austria 6-3, 6-7 (1), 6-3, 3-6, 6-3.
Berdych will next face either three-time champion and No. 2 seed Novak Djokovic of Serbia or Frenchman Adrian Mannarino in the quarterfinals.
