David Ferrer booked a place in the Wimbledon quarter-finals when his renowned tenacity gave him a 6-3 6-2 6-3 victory over Juan Martin del Potro in the fourth round on Tuesday.

The Spanish seventh seed wasted few of his break points after a long opening game in which the ninth-seeded Del Potro failed to convert four of them.

That looked likely to set the scene for a long tussle on Centre Court but it merely served to underline Ferrer’s willingness to scrap for every point.

Ferrer gave former US Open champion Del Potro little chance to settle and the Argentine committed a string of unforced errors as he went down in one hour 43 minutes.

Ferrer faces home hope and fourth seed Andy Murray in the last eight.