Nick Kyrgios will play Andy Murray in a blockbuster fourth-round clash at Wimbledon on Monday after seeing off Feliciano Lopez.
The pair were tied at one-set all overnight but Kyrgios kept his focus to win 6-3, 6-7 (2/7), 6-3, 6-4 on Court One.
A lively middle Sunday crowd certainly enjoyed the spectacle and Kyrgios will no doubt have been relieved to finish the job fairly quickly ahead of a fourth successive day of action.
The Australian was involved in yet another controversial incident during the second set of the match on Saturday evening.
During a rant at his box, Kyrgios was heard to use the word 'retarded'. His countryman Bernard Tomic apologised earlier this week after using the same word in a press conference.
But in general this was the positive side of Kyrgios and Murray will be extremely wary of the flashy 21-year-old.
He saved two break points in the eighth game of the fourth set with aces, the second a 122 miles per hour second serve, before clinching victory after two hours and 42 minutes.
Juan Martin Del Potro's comeback grand slam ended in a third-round loss to Lucas Pouille.
The popular Argentinian had not played at one of the sport’s four major tournaments since the Australian Open in 2014, enduring three operations on his left wrist in the intervening two-and-a-half years.
Del Potro showed form of old to knock out fourth seed Stan Wawrinka in the second round but was beaten 6-7 (4/7), 7-6 (8/6), 7-5, 6-1 by fast-rising Frenchman Pouille.
The 22-year-old was ranked 90th in January but is now up to 30 and will climb further after reaching the fourth round of a slam for the first time.
The match was suspended on an ugly note on Saturday evening as Pouille, who had just taken a two sets to one lead, got into a discussion with the umpire and was unhappy at being told to “shut up” by Del Potro.
Del Potro would no doubt have hoped the overnight break could change the momentum but Pouille was the more consistent player and showed delightful touch at the net to break in the fourth game of the fourth set.
The Frenchman had never won a tour-level match on grass prior to beating Marius Copil in round one but looked fully at home on the surface and will play Bernard Tomic in the last 16 on Monday.
Del Potro had not played any best-of-five-set matches since Melbourne in 2014 and the physical strain proved too much.
He said: “I’m so glad to have the chance to play tennis again. I want to be better in the future.
“But I know it’s a very long road to get better and get 100 per cent. One match for me means I have to prepare mentally, physically, do my treatments on the wrist.
“I got exhausted in every match. I didn’t have too much time to recover between matches after Wawrinka. But Pouille is a great player. He’s 30 in the world.
“I’m not in a hurry to play better, I’m not in a hurry to go up in the rankings. I just have to stay patient and keep working hard, trying to get better as soon as I can.”
Seventh seed Richard Gasquet also finished off a delayed match, beating Albert Ramos-Vinolas 2-6 7-6 (7/5) 6-2 6-3.
