WIMBLEDON, England (AP) — The electronic scoreboard stood out in the twilight, heralding American Sam Querrey's achievement: He had reached the fourth round at Wimbledon for the first time.
Querrey beat the darkness and Xavier Malisse on Saturday, 6-7 (4), 6-4, 6-2, 5-7, 9-7.
The final point came at 9:23 p.m. Querrey figured that if he had not held serve in the final game, the match would have been halted for the night.
That would have meant a long suspension, because the tournament takes a break Sunday.
"We would have had to come back on Monday, which would have been tough," Querrey said. "We would have had to think about it for a full day. I wanted to get it over with."
Querrey fell behind love-30 in the final game, then won the next four points, the last a curling forehand just inside the sideline for a winner.
"It was getting pretty tough to see," he said. "The last forehand, I just kind of almost closed my eyes a little bit. I didn't really see it too clear. Luckily I caught it clean."
Seeded 18th, Querrey is 8-0 on grass this month. The resident of Santa Monica, Calif., won his first grass-court title two weeks ago at Queen's.
On Monday, he'll face Andy Murray on Centre Court. Murray is trying to become the first British man to win Wimbledon since 1936, and Querrey is prepared for a cool reception from the crowd.
"I think it'll be 99 percent for Murray," he said, "and like my mom and dad and sister cheering for me."
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MELTDOWN REFLECTIONS: Serena Williams says she has no remorse about her meltdown at last year's U.S. Open, for which she drew a record $82,500 fine.
"I don't live with too many regrets," Williams said after winning her third-round match Saturday at Wimbledon. "I have other regrets outside of tennis, like silly things, like not going to concerts or something like that. Other than that, no."
Williams lashed out at a lineswoman after a foot-fault call at the end of her semifinal loss to eventual champion Kim Clijsters in New York last September.
When asked if she would have been less likely to launch such a tirade in Wimbledon's more serene setting, she said: "I don't know. I think that was maybe like a one-time thing, I hope." She smiled and added, "You never know. Maybe I'll be inspired to do it again. Who knows?"
The subject arose after Victor Hanescu spat and swore in the direction of hecklers during a match Friday and was fined $15,000.
"Sometimes you lose your cool," Williams said, again smiling. "I have experience with that."
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BRITS WIN: A doubles team gave Britain's tennis fans something to cheer about at Wimbledon besides Andy Murray.
Unseeded Chris Eaton and Dominic Inglot upset two-time defending champions Daniel Nestor and Nenad Zimonjic on Saturday, 7-5, 5-7, 7-6 (4), 6-7 (3), 8-6.
Nestor and Zimonjic were top-seeded.
"It's nice for us to know that we're capable of doing great performances like that," Eaton said. "Now I suppose we've got to work on producing that every time."
The British duo started playing together last September, shortly after Inglot graduated from the University of Virginia. He said playing in college helped his game.
"It definitely teaches you in spite of anything, you've got to just tough out any match you can, do whatever you can to win no matter if you're hurt, whatever it may be, terrible crowd, bad line calls, whatever it is," he said. "So actually, when you come out to these kind of situations, it's easy."
Murray was the only player from Britain to win a singles match this year at Wimbledon — the worst showing ever for the British in their home Grand Slam tournament.
So English fans are starved for victory. During Maria Sharapova's match Saturday, when the final score of the Eaton-Inglot match was shown on the scoreboard, a fan stood, lifted his arms and yelled, 'Yes, they did it!'"
"It's always nice to have British wins," Eaton said. "This is Wimbledon, so it's not really an easy place to win tennis matches."
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CELEBRITY SPECTATORS: On the eve of England's World Cup match against Germany, Sir Bobby Charlton was among the sporting stars in the Royal Box at Wimbledon.
Charlton, a member of England's team that beat West Germany in the 1966 final, was joined by fellow soccer great Glenn Hoddle. Champions from other sports in the box included tennis champions Martina Navratilova, Ilie Natase and Evonne Goolagong-Cawley, U.S. Olympic skiing medalist Julia Mancuso and British Olympic cycling champions Chris Hoy and Victoria Pendleton.
Also present were cricketers Brian Lara from Trinidad and Tobago and Sachin Tendulkar, India's most famous sportsman.
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SISTERS WIN: Serena and Venus Williams moved a step closer Saturday to their fifth consecutive Grand Slam doubles championship and 13th overall.
The Americans won their third-round match Saturday, beating Dominika Cibulkova and Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 6-1, 6-2. Serena Williams also beat Cibulkova in singles.
The sisters are seeded No. 1 in doubles.
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