Top seed Jannik Sinner struggled with an elbow problem and was given an almighty scare before advancing to the quarter-finals of Wimbledon after a cruel twist of fate for his 19th-seeded opponent Grigor Dimitrov who retired injured at two sets up.
Novak Djokovic continued his quest for Grand Slam glory at the All England Club with a battling victory over Alex de Minaur while five-times major champion Iga Swiatek found her grasscourt wings to fly past Clara Tauson.
The drama was reserved for the evening clash on Centre Court as Dimitrov, who had pulled out injured in his last four majors, played exquisite tennis to go up 6-3 7-5 2-2 but then crashed to the ground after a big ace to hold serve.
Sinner, who had been hampered for much of the contest by a right elbow issue after slipping and falling to the turf early on, was left feeling sorry for his opponent who threw in the towel after a short assessment by a doctor.
"I don't know what to say because he's an incredible player. I think we all saw this today," said Sinner, who was by a tearful Dimitrov's side while the Bulgarian was attended to. "He's been so unlucky in the past couple of years. He's an incredible player, a good friend of mine also, and we understand each other very well off the court too.
"Seeing him in this position... if there would be a chance that he could play in the next round, he would deserve it. Now I hope he has a speedy recovery. Very, very unlucky from his side.
"I don't take this as a win at all... just an unfortunate moment to witness for all of us."
Sinner later told reporters he would have an MRI scan to check his own injury.
"It happened very early in the match, first game. It was quite an unfortunate fall. We checked the videos a bit, and it didn't seem a tough one, but I still felt it quite a lot, especially serve and forehand," he added.
"So let's see... tomorrow we are going to check with MRI to see if there's something serious and then we try to adjust it."
Sinner next faces American 10th seed Ben Shelton, who beat another Italian in Lorenzo Sonego 3-6 6-1 7-6(1) 7-5 to advance to the quarter-finals at Wimbledon for the first time, as did Flavio Cobolli, who downed Marin Cilic 6-4 6-4 6-7(4) 7-6(3).
