Wimbledon, England – Former champion Novak Djokovic and last year's runner-up Andy Murray secured berths in the quarterfinals at Wimbledon.
The world No. 1 Djokovic reached his fifth straight and sixth overall Wimbledon quarterfinal by topping 13th-seeded resurgent German Tommy Haas 6-1, 6-4, 7-6 (7-4), while the second-seeded Murray landed in his sixth straight Wimbledon quarter by handling 20th-seeded Russian veteran Mikhail Youzhny 6-4, 7-6 (7-5), 6-1 on the famed Centre Court.
Djokovic lost his serve for the first time of the fortnight when Haas turned the trick en route to 4-2 lead in the second set, but the super Serb got the break back to level the set at 4-all, and would hold on from there. Djokovic held his serve for his first 48 service games of the 2013 tournament.
Haas broke Djokovic for a second time and then held for a 5-5 score in the third set and eventually forced a tiebreak, but Djokovic jumped out to a 5-1 lead in the extra session and ultimately closed out his German counterpart on a fourth match point, a forehand winner after 2 hours, 12 minutes of tennis. Djokovic served for the match at 5-3 in the stanza, but blew a match point in the ninth game.
The 35-year-old Haas had been 2-0 against Djokovic on grass, including a quarterfinal victory here at Wimbledon four years ago.
Djokovic is now 6-3 lifetime versus the one-time world No. 2 Haas after smacking 13 aces and piling up six service breaks.
The six-time major champion Djokovic, who beat Murray in this year's Australian Open final and lost to Murray in last year's U.S. Open title tilt, captured his lone Wimbledon championship two years ago.
Djokovic will play in his 17th straight Grand Slam quarterfinal against former Wimbledon runner-up Tomas Berdych on Wednesday. The high-flying Serb's quarterfinal streak is the third-longest all-time behind Roger Federer's 36 and Jimmy Connors' 27 straight appearances. Federer's streak came to a close last week when he was shocked by Ukrainian Sergiy Stakhovsky.
Meanwhile, the capable Youzhny, who has reached at least the fourth round at Wimbledon on eight occasions, had a 5-2 lead against Murray in the second set on Monday, but he ultimately lost the stanza via tiebreak and would then succumb to the Scot after that.
Murray lost to Federer in last year's Wimbledon final and then beat Federer in the Olympic gold-medal match a month later here on the hallowed lawns at the All England Club.
The 26-year-old Murray will appear in his 10th straight Grand Slam quarterfinal. He captured his first-ever major title by beating Djokovic in last year's U.S. Open finale.
Murray, who's currently riding a 15-match winning streak on grass, is trying to give Britain its first male Wimbledon singles champion in 77 years.
His quarterfinal opponent on Wednesday will be Spanish veteran Fernando Verdasco.
After showing up 10 minutes late on court, fourth-seeded French Open runner-up David Ferrer reached his second straight Wimbledon quarterfinal by overcoming capable Croat Ivan Dodig 6-7 (3-7), 7-6 (8-6), 6-1, 6-1; the seventh-seeded 2010 Wimbledon runner-up Berdych topped young Aussie Bernard Tomic 7-6 (7-4), 6-7 (5-7), 6-4, 6-4; and eighth-seeded former U.S. Open champion Juan Martin del Potro doused 23rd-seeded Italian Andreas Seppi 6-4, 7-6 (7-2), 6-3 to reach his first-ever Wimbledon quarter.
The gritty Spaniard Ferrer and formidable 6-foot-7 Argentine del Potro will lock horns in a marquee quarterfinal on Wednesday.
"I need to play my best tennis to beat del Potro," Ferrer said.
A pair of Poles landed in the round of eight, as 24th-seeded Jerzy Janowicz outlasted veteran Austrian left-hander Jurgen Melzer 3-6, 7-6 (7-1), 6-4, 4-6, 6-4 and Lukasz Kubot went the distance to beat France's Adrian Mannarino 4-6, 6-3, 3-6, 6-3, 6-4. The 6-foot-8 Janowicz and the 130th-ranked Kubot will meet on Wednesday in the first-ever all-Polish Grand Slam quarterfinal, with the winner giving Poland its' first-ever male Grand Slam semifinalist.
The last Polish man to reach a Grand Slam quarter was Wojtek Fibak in 1980.
Also reaching his first-ever Wimbledon quarterfinal was the aforementioned southpaw and former top-10 star Verdasco, who handled Frenchman Kenny De Schepper 6-4, 6-4, 6-4 on "Manic Monday," when all of the remaining singles players are on the schedule at the AEC.
For the second time in three days, there will be no men's singles action on Tuesday. The middle Sunday marked the traditional day off at Wimbledon.
Receive your weekly recap of all the happenings around the world of sports.