Andy Murray overcame Ivo Karlovic's missile serve to book his place in the Wimbledon quarter-finals.
Karlovic's 136 aces put him top of the tournament leaderboard at the start of play but while the 6ft 11in Croatian added another 29 to his tally, precision won over power as Murray sealed 7-6 (9/7) 6-4 5-7 6-4 victory.
A place in the semi-finals rests on Murray beating Canada's Vasek Pospisil, who knocked out Britain's James Ward in round three and Viktor Troicki on Monday.
Murray won a first-set tie-break to set him on the way to victory.
The Scot has never lost to Karlovic in five previous meetings but seven of their 14 previous sets had gone to tie-breaks and the 28-year-old had to win another to pull ahead on Centre Court.
The Croatian has not been past the quarter-finals at SW19 but he knocked out two-time Wimbledon semi-finalist Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in round three and remains a daunting opponent on grass.
The British number one predicted his opportunities to crack Karlovic's serve would be few and far between but a break point arrived in the very first game as Murray looked to catch his opponent cold.
The chance went begging, however, and Karlovic, to a chorus of gasps and whistles from the Wimbledon crowd, made his mark with two aces and a 134mph serve.
Between the Croatian's mighty deliveries, one of which clocked a helpless line judge on the head, Murray was able to dictate the rallies and the Scot was frustrated by almost any point he lost which lasted longer than two shots.
Three more break point opportunities came just at the right time for Murray as he led 5-4 and then 6-5, but on each occasion Karlovic served his way out of trouble to force the tie-break.
The Croatian assumed a commanding position when he pulled 4-2 clear but Murray came storming back and after 57 minutes, he converted his sixth set point at 8-7 when a Karlovic forehand flew long.
Buoyed by his advantage, Murray began to loosen up and some brilliant returning gave him an instant break in the second set as Karlovic began to flounder in the face of his opponent's superior shot-making.
Two more break points came and went for Murray in the seventh game, but Karlovic rarely threatened, and the Scot served out to love to clinch the second set 6-4.
Karlovic had the chance to spark a revival when he earned a break point at 2-2 in the third but he failed to convert a simple smash and Murray survived.
The 36-year-old refused to lie down, however, and his chip and charge tactics kept the pressure on Murray, who was forced to serve for a tie-break as he trailed 6-5.
A broken string from a first serve created a delay in play at 30-30 and Karlovic pounced, winning a break point and then sealing the set 7-5 as Murray hit a sloppy backhand into the net.
Centre Court fell flat at the prospect of another set of boom-and-bust but Murray maintained his composure and in the seventh game seized the crucial break.
The Briton did brilliantly to retrieve another thundering Karlovic serve but the Croatian's volley looked to have caught the line before, to the surprise of both players, an optimistic challenge fell in Murray's favour.
The Scot had a break point to win the match at 5-4 but while Karlovic dug deep to hold one more time, he could not prevent his opponent serving out and sealing an 18th consecutive grand slam quarter-final.
Nick Kyrgios risks a heavy fine after going into a sulk and appearing to stop trying during his 7-5 6-1 6-7 (7/9) 7-6 (8/6) defeat to Richard Gasquet.
The 20-year-old Australian downed tools early in the second set of the clash on Court Two, where he also was given a ticking-off for swearing and rowed with British umpire James Keothavong over a change of socks.
It was the code violation for an audible obscenity that seemed to spark the petulance from Kyrgios, who was heading a break down when Keothavong warned him over his coarse language.
In an act of ill-advised rebellion, in the third game of the second set, Kyrgios let two serves slide by him for aces without even swinging his racquet. He meekly fed back two further Gasquet serves into the net in a game of complete surrender.
Kyrgios was booed by hundreds of fans who felt short-changed by his lack of effort, and it barely improved as he gave up the set in just 24 minutes.
Despite picking up his performance thereafter, Kyrgios went on to lose the match and his childish attitude could bring with it a cost.
International Tennis Federation rules state: "A player shall use his best efforts to win a match when competing in a grand slam tournament. Violation of this section shall subject a player to a fine up to $20,000 for each violation."
Additionally, the rules state: "In circumstances that are flagrant and particularly injurious to the success of a tournament, or are singularly egregious, a single violation ... shall also constitute the major offence of 'aggravated behaviour' and shall be subject to the additional penalties hereinafter set forth therefor."
That allows the ITF to impose a penalty of $250,000.
Gasquet smashed his racquet after the third set, crunching it into the grass and then smashing it against his chair in frustration after letting two match points slip by, having squandered nine when losing to Kyrgios in the second round last year.
The Frenchman was relatively well behaved, while bad boy Kyrgios flounced out despite the presence in the crowd of the man in a Batman T-shirt whose advice he claimed was instrumental in victory last week on the same court against Milos Raonic.
"Come on Nick, Batman's here," the fan shouted out at one stage.
The second-set aberration was peppered with some spectacular shot-making when Kyrgios fancied showing the crowd his talent.
The third set also saw Kyrgios and Keothavong - brother of former player Anne Keothavong - in a bizarre exchange over the Australian adjusting his kit.
"I'm changing my socks," Kyrgios explained to Keothavong at the changeover following the third game.
"I've taken one pair off.
"I've got two on and I'm taking one pair off."
After Keothavong replied to Kyrgios, the combustible Canberra man said: "I'm staying on the court.
"If you're going to get angry with me for that, that's another level.
"Mate, Rafa (Rafael Nadal) and stuff play 30 seconds in between points every time and all I'm doing is putting my sock back on."
Referring to Gasquet, Kyrgios said: "I'm sure he'll understand.
"Do you wanna ask him?"
Kyrgios then shouted from his chair to Gasquet on court: "Richard, I'm just changing my socks."
As Gasquet raised no objections, Kyrgios added: "Yeah, he's fine... unbelievable."
Kyrgios won that set, but could not piece together a second successful tie-break - squandering two points to take it to a deciding set - as he exited the tournament with a double fault.
French Open champion Stan Wawrinka awaits Gasquet in the quarter-finals, which for the men take place on Wednesday.
Wawrinka was made to toil for his win over David Goffin of Belgium, with the Swiss fourth seed edging through 7-6 (7/3) 7-6 (9/7) 6-4.
Roger Federer made smooth progress through to a 13th Wimbledon quarter-final as the Swiss second seed brushed aside Roberto Bautista Agut, winning 6-2 6-2 6-3 to set up a crack at Gilles Simon next.
Frenchman Simon was a surprisingly comfortable 6-3 6-3 6-2 victor against Czech sixth seed Tomas Berdych, while Croatia's US Open champion Marin Cilic reached the last-eight stage with a 6-4 4-6 6-3 7-5 win against American Denis Kudla.
Federer felt he had played well, but played down the suggestion his display was a statement.
"I don't think I made a statement. It was nice to play a baseliner after two big servers," Federer said. "I did a nice job making the transition.
"It was a good match. I got off to a good start and kept rolling. Obviously maybe Roberto wasn't at his very best."
Bautista Agut had an injury break during the second set but carried on.
"I had to put him away, which I was able to do so," Federer said.
"I'm happy to be back in the quarters here. This is really when it gets much more interesting, when you can look ahead a little bit without doing that too much because obviously your opponents are going to get tougher and tougher.
"I'm not going to look further than Gilles Simon who has caused me difficulties in the past. I played him tough in some of the majors, Australia, French Open, we played five sets both times there."
Defending champion Novak Djokovic was tied at two sets all with big-serving South African Kevin Anderson when fading light brought their match to a halt on Court One.
Anderson had taken the first two sets on tie-breaks, setting up the possibility of a major upset, before improving Djokovic battled back to make the match scoreline 6-7 (6/8) 6-7 (6/8) 6-1 6-4 overnight.
Tournament officials ruled out the prospect of moving the match to finish on Centre Court, where lighting allows matches to continue until an 11pm curfew.
Although the match between Gilles Simon and Gael Monfils was moved to complete on the main show court on Saturday night, a tournament spokesperson said that was because of Sunday's rest day, and the urgency to avoid the match being held over to Monday.
