Wimbledon quarter finals as they happened – Rafael Nadal edges Taylor Fritz after Halep and Kyrgios win

Wilander on Nadal's intensity.

The two-time champion faces the American No.11 seed in a clash many feel could provide an upset. Fritz’s powerhouse game is ideal for grass and he has looked excellent since winning a pre-Wimbledon tournament at Eastbourne recently. The H2H is level at 1-1 with Fritz beating Nadal (albeit with fractured rib) in the Indian Wells final earlier this year.

Simona almost loses her way. The Romanian is faced by another three break points but manages to hang on with that trademark spirit to somehow make deuce. A clutch serve earns her a match point and Anisimova drives a backhand wide to pave the way for the 2019 champion to make the semi finals after one hour and three minutes on Centre Court.

The American has found herself … finally! She consolidates the break back and heaps the pressure on to Halep, who will now try to serve out the match for a second time.

Too little, too late? Maybe… but at least there’s some spirit there. Anisimova finds her return game right at what feels like the death. She blows two of three break points and screams in anguish, but resets well to attack another weak second serve and unleash her power in the ensuing rally to lure the error off Halep’s backhand.

The Centre Court crowd offer cheers of encouragement as Amanda belatedly finds her game. She clocks up a positive hold to 15 but the damage has surely been done. Halep will now serve for the match.

Make that six games in a row. The Kazakhstani star is enjoying a real purple patch as she breaks again to lead 2-0 in the decider.

Elena then finds herself in SEVENTH heaven as aces 11 and 12 of the match power her to an emphatic love hold to back up the break.

Simona consolidates with another very comfortable hold. Anisimova looks like she accepted her fate quite some time ago. There’s no real fight in her right now.

This match is running away from the young American. She clocks up a 22nd unforced error of the contest on her way to folding on serve once again. Halep is racing towards the last four without having to hit top gear.

Rybakina continues her hot streak by clinching a hold to 30 to snare the scoreboard advantage at the start of Set 3.

Anisimova just can’t find the court enough. She’s blasting returns off tame second serves cheaply off court. It makes life easy for Halep who happily takes the charity to consolidate with the minimum of fuss.

It’s all going rather pear-shaped for the Aussie. Rybakina hammers away at her defences again and now she’s breaching them with alarming regularity. It’s another break and the No.17 seed takes the second set 6-2 to push the contest into a decider.

That’s sloppy from Amanda. She barely reaches the net with a mistimed mid-court forehand to gift Halep three more break points. The American saves one but then fails to take care with a deep backhand approach that sails long of the baseline.

The No.17 seed refused to let that service wobble get to her and after breaking again for a 4-2 lead, she duly found that huge serve to back it up for a 5-2 lead.

Blink and you’ll miss that. Halep slaps an ace down the T to leap on to the board with a rapid love hold.

That’s a tidy way to kick off Set 2. Anisimova completely wrong foots Halep with a precise forehand to the corner to conclude a sharp game to 30.

Just when it seemed like Rybakina had found her serving mojo, she goes and throws in a shaky game to allow the plucky Aussie to bite back.

Ajla backs it up to level at 2-2.