ANDY Murray yesterday reached a fifth successive Wimbledon quarterfinal where he will meet Spanish bulldozer David Ferrer, who has made the last eight for the first time at the 10th attempt.

British fourth seed Murray beat Croatian 16th seed Marin Cilic 7-5 6-2 6-3 as organisers scrambled to make up for lost time caused by heavy rain.

He will now attempt to go on to a fourth All England Club semifinal on the trot, but will first have to get past seventh-seeded Ferrer, who put out former US Open champion Juan Martin del Potro 6-3 6-2 6-3.

Also making the quarterfinals were Germans Florian Mayer and Philipp Kohlschreiber.

Mayer, the 31st seed, defeated Richard Gasquet of France 6-3 6-1 3-6 6-2 in another match which was held over from Monday.

Kohlschreiber reached his first grand slam quarterfinal at the 33rd attempt by clinching a 6-1 7-6(4) 6-3 win over American qualifier Brian Baker.

Only three of the scheduled last 16 men's ties were completed on Monday, with Novak Djokovic, Roger Federer and Mikhail Youzhny able to enjoy a day off before today's quarterfinals.

Federer will play Youzhny, looking for a 14th win in 14 matches against the Russian. Defending champion Djokovic will tackle Mayer, who has reached the quarterfinals for the second time, eight years after his first appearance.

Ferrer never got the chance to start his match on Monday, but the 30-year-old, now carrying Spain's hopes after the shock elimination of Rafael Nadal, wasted no time against ninth seed Del Potro, racing home beneath the Centre Court roof in under two hours.

Kohlschreiber will face French fifth seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, who reached the last eight for the third successive year by defeating US 10th seed Mardy Fish 4-6 7-6(4) 6-4 6-4.

Petra Kvitova's hopes of defending her Wimbledon title were shot to pieces in a hail of Centre Court cannon fire from Serena Williams, who ousted the Czech defending champion 6-3 7-5.

The quality of tennis on show could have graced a final as both players tore into each other with rasping serves and ferocious groundstrokes.

Williams broke in the sixth game of the first set when Kvitova sent a crosscourt forehand wide and then closed it out when the Czech sent a backhand return long.

Williams saved break point in the 10th game of the second and then made her opponent pay, breaking in the next game before serving it out to set up a semifinal against Belarus's Australian Open champion Victoria Azarenka, who beat Austria's Tamira Paszek 6-1 7-6(4).

Angelique Kerber beat fellow German Sabine Lisicki, the conqueror of Maria Sharapova, in a nerve-racking battle of the blondes 6-3 6-7(7) 7-5 to reach her first Wimbledon semifinal.

Eighth seed Kerber will face Polish third seed Agnieszka Radwanska, who beat Russian 17th seed Maria Kirilenko 7-5 4-6 7-5 in a match finished on the covered Centre Court.