Holder Murray marches into Wimbledon quarter-finals

The third seed, who broke a 77-year men's title drought for Britain a year ago, spent two-and-a half-hours in winning a match which went from outdoors to indoors under the Centre Court roof when late rain forced a pause.

Murray advanced without the loss of a set so far, serving 11 aces, 48 winners and breaks on four of 19 opportunities.

He will play the first Bulgarian to get this far, Grigor Dimitrov, who beat Argentine Leonardo Mayer 6-4, 7-6 (8-6), 6-2.

US tennis suffered an historic embarrassment as its last two players, Madison Keys and John Isner were eliminated. It marked the first time since 1911 that no American would be playing in the Wimbledon fourth round.  

The roof was closed on Murray and Anderson as rain defied forecasts on what had been promised as a fair day.

"It was good to get off in straight sets, I can rest up and get ready for the quarters," said Murray. "When it was an outdoor match, I played well. Indoors, he struck the ball better and served bigger.

"He was making it tough for me at the end. But they are all tough at this stage, everyone is playing well."

Top seed Novak Djokovic extended his win streak to 11 matches by beating Jo-Wilfried Tsonga 6-3, 6-4, 7-6 (7-5) just a month after a victory at Roland Garros over the French player.

Third-seed Stan Wawrinka won a match delayed from the weekend to reach the fourth round as the number three complained about the tournament's heavy hand when it came to bad-weather scheduling.

The Australian Open champion booked his place over Denis Istomin 6-3, 6-3, 6-4, a match which should have been played on a wet Saturday.

Wawrinka remained disappointed that he now faces possible matches on three consecutive days, a situation which could have been avoided had unbending Wimbledon officials shown some creative thinking once Saturday skies dried.

"It's going to be tough and I'm going to focus on tomorrow and that's it. But they take a decision, and you cannot do anything. They just say what's going to be the schedule and that's it.  Even if you want to talk to them, they're not going to change anything.

"They don't listen to the players. They just do what they think is good for them."

The last two third-round matches were also concluded, with Feliciano Lopez beating American Isner 6-7 (10-8), 7-6 (8-6), 6-7 (3-7), 7-6 (7-3), 7-5 and Japan's Kei Nishikori,defeating Simone Bolelli in another five-setter.

Croatian Marin Cilic put out France's Jeremy Chardy 7-6 (10-8), 6-4, 6-4.   In the women's third round, 2013 finalist Sabine Lisicki completed a win over Ana Ivanovic, knocking out the former number one 6-4, 3-6, 6-1.

Kazakh Yaroslava Shvedova advanced over Keys, who pulled out with a thigh injury after a Saturday start, losing 7-6 (9-7), 6-6.

In the fourth round, Canadian 13th seed Eugenie Bouchard, the only woman to play semi-finals at two grand slams this season, beat Alize Cornet 7-6 (7-5), 7-5.

The match also had to be interrupted, with the roof shut after five games. Bouchard now stands 14-2 at the majors.

"I'm really proud of how I fought," she said. "It was not an easy match. She's a good player and gets a lot of balls back. I tried to finish off the points, which I managed."

Barbora Zahlavova Strycova beat 16th seed Caroline Wozniacki 6-2, 7-5 on a sixth match point to set up a quarter-final with fellow Czech Lucie Safarova who defeated compatriot Tereza Smitkova 6-0, 6-2.

It marked the first grand slam quarter-final for Safarova since 2007.