Title holder Andy Murray neutralised the big-swinging game of lofty South African Kevin Anderson to reach the Wimbledon quarter-finals 6-4 6-3 7-6(6) on Monday.

The 27-year-old Briton returned sharply and drew the 2.03-metre (6’8″) Anderson into rallies to impose his game on the Wimbledon grass, where he is on a run of 17 successive victories.

Anderson, a career-high 18th in the world, broke Murray’s serve only once, after rain forced a pause for the Centre Court roof to be closed with Murray 3-0 up in the second set.

But he upped his game in the third set to force a tense tiebreak and even had a set point before Murray won three points in a row to reach his seventh successive Wimbledon quarter-final.

Murray will next meet either 11th seed Grigor Dimitrov of Bulgaria or Leonardo Mayer of Argentina for a place in the semi-finals.

Meanwhile, Canadian 20-year-old Eugenie Bouchard succeeded where Serena Williams failed as she beat Alize Cornet to reach the Wimbledon quarter-finals. Frenchwoman Cornet caused a sensation on Saturday when she sent five-times champion and pre-tournament favourite Williams packing but Bouchard proved to be made of sterner stuff as she edged to a 7-6(5) 7-5 victory. The match was interrupted after five games to allow the Centre Court roof to close when more rain hit the championships after Saturday’s serious disruption.

Making up for lost time

Swiss Stanislas Wawrinka, one of the victims of soggy Saturday when his match against Uzbekistan’s Denis Istomin was washed out, made up for lost time with a rapid 6-3 6-3 6-4 win completed just before a heavy rain shower arrived.

Japan’s Kei Nishikori was detained even less as the 10th seed needed only four games to complete a 3-6 6-3 4-6 7-6(4) 6-4 victory over Simone Bolelli after their match had been suspended because of bad light on Saturday.

Spain’s Feliciano Lopez also belatedly reached the last 16, beating big-serving American John Isner in a four-set match that predictably included three tiebreaks.

Isner’s defeat ended U.S. interest in the singles after teenager Madison Keys was forced to withdraw on Monday with a leg injury before resuming her third-round match against Kazakhstan’s Yaroslava Shvedova.

They had been locked at 6-6 in the second set when darkness fell on Saturday, after Shvedova had won the opener.

Shvedova will play last year’s runner-up Sabine Lisicki in the fourth round after the German claimed a stop-go 6-4 3-6 6-1 victory over 11th seed Ana Ivanovic.

The defeat of Williams blew a large hole in the women’s draw and Bouchard exploited it with a performance of grit and power against 25th seed Cornet to become the first Canadian to reach a Wimbledon singles quarter-final.

Having reached the semi-finals at both the Australian Open and French Open this year, Bouchard arrived at Wimbledon with the likes of former men’s champion John McEnroe tipping her as his dark horse for the women’s title.

She looked like she would be stretched into a third set when she trailed 5-3 in the second, but she continued her attacking style to claw back the deficit.

Serving at 5-6, Cornet tried in vain to hold off the Canadian trailblazer, rescuing one point after a nasty tumble, but fired a backhand long to succumb.

Paes-Black ousted

Leander Paes and Cara Black crashed out of the Wimbledon in the second round. The fourth seeded Indo-Zimbabwean pair went down 6-1, 2-6, 3-6 to USA’s Eric Butorac and Hungarian Timea Babos. —PTI

Results: (Men’s round 4) 3-Andy Murray beat 20-Kevin Anderson 6-4, 6-3, 7-6(6); 26-Marin Cilic beat Jeremy Chardy 7-6(8), 6-4, 6-4; Round 3: 19-Feliciano Lopez beat 9-John Isner 6-7(8), 7-6(6), 7-6(3), 7-5; 5-Stanislas Wawrinka beat Denis Istomin 6-3, 6-3, 6-4; 10-Kei Nishikori beat Simone Bolelli 3-6, 6-3, 4-6, 7-6(4), 6-4

Women’s Round 4: 22-Ekaterina Makarova beat 4-Agnieszka Radwanska 6-3, 6-0; 6-Petra Kvitova beat Peng Shuai 6-3, 6-2; 13-Eugenie Bouchard beat 25-Alize Cornet 7-6(5), 7-5; Barbora Zahlavova Strycova beat 16-Caroline Wozniacki 6-2, 7-5; 23-Lucie Safarova beat Tereza Smitkova 6-0, 6-2; Round 3: 19-Sabine Lisicki beat 11-Ana Ivanovic 6-4, 3-6, 6-1; Yaroslava Shvedova beat Madison Keys (retd) 7-6(7), 6-6.