Defending men's singles champion Novak Djokovic took the first two sets in his Wimbledon fourth-round battle with Hubert Hurkacz on Sunday night.
The Serbian capitalised on mistakes from his Polish counterpart at the most inopportune moments to move into a 7-6[6] 7-6[6] lead before play was suspended just after the second set concluded at 10:35pm, ahead of the 11pm curfew.
Hurkacz had three set points in the first set tie-breaker, but a spate of unforced errors allowed Djokovic to claw his way back, and the 23-time Grand Slam winner also held his nerve in the second to put one foot firmly in the last eight.
Djokovic and Hurkacz did not start play on Centre Court until approximately 8:50pm, as Iga Swiatek and Andrey Rublev both took over three hours to secure thrilling wins against Belinda Bencic and Alexander Bublik respectively.
Women's top seed Swiatek saved two match points in the second set before seeing out a remarkable 6-7[4] 7-6[2] 6-3 victory versus Bencic, who came under the cosh early doors but managed to save six break points in the first set.
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The Swiss hit 14 winners en route to an opening tie-breaker success and got to 40-15 on Swiatek's serve at 6-5 in the second set, but the world number one held her nerve and fired back-to-back winners to save her bacon.
After five successive points for the receiver in the second tie-breaker, Swiatek - who was playing consecutive tie-breakers in a match for the very first time - took the match by the scruff of the neck, quickly levelling the scores and racing into a 4-1 lead in the third.
While serving for the match, Swiatek's third double fault of the match gifted Bencic a 3-1 advantage, but the Pole recovered and hit successive forehand winners to seal a place in the last 16.
Meanwhile, Russia's Rublev nearly became the victim of a barnstorming Bublik comeback, but the seventh seed got over the line 7-5 6-3 6-7[6] 6-7[5] 6-4, thanks in no small part to an astonishing forehand winner to bring up a match point.
At 5-4 down in the fifth, Bublik was attempting to stay in the match, and he would seemingly move one point away from levelling the set with a down-the-line backhand into acres of space.
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However, a diving Rublev somehow managed to race across the back of the court and clear the net with a forehand, leaving Bublik aghast and the Centre Court crowd in awe, although he labelled that effort the "most lucky shot ever" after taking the subsequent match point with a 21st ace of the day.
Meanwhile, a politically-charged match between Ukraine's Elina Svitolina and Belarus' Victoria Azarenka ended in equally dramatic fashion, as the former edged an encapsulating tie-breaker to win 2-6 6-4 7-6[9].
Svitolina had stated before the tournament that she would not shake hands with Russian or Belarusian players, leading to just a simple nod from the pair after the match, but the contest ended on an unsavoury note as Azarenka was booed off the court.
Elsewhere, Jannik Sinner became the first Italian to make multiple Wimbledon quarter-final appearances by beating Daniel Elahi Galan in straight sets, while Grigor Dimitrov and Roman Safiullin overcame Frances Tiafoe and Denis Shapovalov respectively.
Mirra Andreeva's dream run continued as the 16-year-old bested Anastasia Potapova 6-2 7-5 to move into the fourth round, while Jessica Pegula and Marketa Vondrousova set up a quarter-final meeting with triumphs over Lesia Tsurenko and Marie Bouzkova respectively.
Ben Knapton
