Andy Murray works hard to come through against Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in five sets

Murray was clearly frustrated with his performance in the third and fourth sets but gathered himself to produce a scintillating display in the final set.

After Roger Federer's miraculous earlier escape act against Marin Cilic, when he recovered to win from two sets down, 12th seeded Frenchman Tsonga threatened something equally improbable as dusk settled at the All England Club.

Tsonga looked down and out after letting an epic 22-point tiebreak slip away despite having three set points, then capitulating in a one-sided second set.

But he roared back with some audacious attacking tennis and Britain's 2013 champion Murray, for the first time in a tournament that had been stress-free before, seemed close to buckling.

Second seed Murray, hot favourite after champion Novak Djokovic's third-round demise, was outplayed in sets three and four as winners flowed from Tsonga's racket.

He then had to save a break point at the start of the decider, rediscovering his earlier form and racing away to a victory cheered by a packed arena, sealing it with an ace.

"It was a tough match. At the end of the fourth set it was really tough," Murray, who had not dropped a set to reach the quarter-finals, said in a courtside interview.

"To lose that set 6-4 was hard but I tried to use all my energy at the start of the fifth to get myself pumped up, and the crowd, and thankfully got the break and managed to hang on."

He will now face Tomas Berdych in the semi-final - his opponent in a notoriously heated 2015 Australian Open semi-final.