Cameron Norrie kept the British flag flying at Wimbledon by taking down qualifier Nicolas Jarry in a five-set marathon to reach the quarter-finals.
The 29-year-old led by two sets and had a match point in the third, but was taken to a fifth by the 6ft 7in Chilean.
However, Norrie held his nerve in the decider and did not drop serve all day in a 6-3, 7-6 (4), 6-7 (7), 6-7 (5), 6-3 victory over a gruelling four hours and 27 minutes.
Norrie, a semi-finalist in 2022, is now only the third British man to reach the last eight more than once in the last 50 years, after Tim Henman and Andy Murray.
He is also the last home player left in either draw after Sonay Kartal’s defeat to Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova earlier on Sunday.
It is a fine achievement for a player who had slipped from eight in the world to 91 after a tough couple of years, and who is now on the verge of a return to the top 50.
He will have his work cut out to get much further, though, with two-time defending champion Carlos Alcaraz his quarter-final opponent.
Norrie, who has now won nine of his 10 matches on his favourite No1 Court, said: “I hung tough when I needed to and the atmosphere was so good.
“Credit to Nico, he did an unbelievable job staying with me. I just had to keep fighting. It’s my coach’s birthday and I forgot to get him a present, so I got him the win.”
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Jarry was clearly unhappy about something at the end, with the two players engaged in a long, heated conversation after shaking hands.
“He said I was a little bit vocal, but that’s my energy. It was a competitive match,” added Norrie.
The first three sets were peak Norrie, with him simply keeping the ball in play and waiting for his opponent to make a mistake. The South American obliged with 43 unforced errors, while risk-averse Norrie had made just 13.
However, when Norrie had a match point on serve in the third set tie-break, Jarry saved it with a fine return and volley before converting his second set point.
Jarry’s charge through qualifying to the fourth round has been one of the stories of the Championships, his ranking having plummeted from 16 this time last year to 143 due to a health issue which has affected his vision and balance.
The winners were now starting to mount up from Jarry’s racket – he hit 103 in total including 46 aces – one of which secured the fourth set, again after a tie-break.
Yet some three-and-a-half hours after he first broke the Jarry serve Norrie, aided by an untimely double-fault, managed it again at the start of the fifth.
Norrie backed that up by saving two break points for a massive hold after a 10-minute game to lead 3-0.
He stayed strong down the home straight and when Jarry put one last, tired forehand into the net the British number three was able to celebrate a memorable win.
