World No.1 Iga Swiatek was only one point away from packing her bags and departing Wimbledon in her fourth-round match against Olympic champion Belinda Bencic on Sunday, but saved two match points to come back and claim a nail-biting victory.

Iga Swiatek of Poland competes during the women's singles fourth round match between Iga Swiatek of Poland and Belinda Bencic of Switzerland at Wimbledon Tennis Championships in London, Britain, July 9, 2023. (Xinhua/Han Yan)

The four-time major winner came from 6-5 and 40-15 down in the second set, bouncing back to save two match points before winning the tiebreak and the third set to reach the quarterfinals at the All England Club for the first time, after a three-hour battle with the scores at 6-7(4), 7-6(2), 6-3.

"She had match point, right?" said an exhausted Swiatek in her on-court interview. "I don't know if I ever had that in my career to come back from match point down."

"I'm just happy I won it because honestly in the second set I wasn't sure that it's going to end that way. I'm happy that I kept my belief and I just played and I didn't look back," the 22-year-old added.

Through her first three matches at Wimbledon, Swiatek broke serve in 64 percent of her return games. But facing the No.14 seed, things didn't go well for the Pole as she only won two out of nine break points in the match, missing all six in the first set.

However, Bencic's 33 unforced errors, including 11 double faults, cost her the chance to stun the top seed.

"I think it was an incredible match," Bencic said. "Of course, she's No. 1 in the world so she's not going to give me the match just like that, but still, I think I threw everything I could at her and I pushed her to the limit.

"In that case, I'm super proud of how it went from my side."

Next up for Swiatek is Ukrainian wildcard Elina Svitolina, who put together a heroic effort to come back from a set and 2-0 down, and wipe a 7-4 deficit in the deciding super-tiebreak to overcome two-time major champion Victoria Azarenka 2-6, 6-4, 7-6(11-9).

In her first two Grand Slams back from maternity leave - she gave birth to daughter Skai last October - Svitolina has made back-to-back Grand Slam quarterfinals, at the French Open last month and now at Wimbledon.

"I think after giving birth, this is the second-happiest moment in my life," said an emotional and tearful Svitolina, who claimed her first victory in six meetings with Azarenka.

"It was an extremely tough match, when I was 0-2 down in the second set I heard you guys cheering for me and I almost wanted to cry."

Defending men's champion and 23-time Grand Slam winner Novak Djokovic was stuck in a tough battle against Poland's 17th seed Hubert Hurkacz, but the Serbian managed to win two tiebreaks to hold a two-set lead 7-6(6), 7-6(6) when the match was halted for a night curfew and will be resumed on Monday.

Earlier in the day, No.4 seed Jessica Pegula completed her box set of Grand Slam quarterfinal appearances by defeating Ukrainian veteran Lesia Tsurenko 6-1, 6-3.

Pegula had never made it past the third round in either of her previous two Wimbledon outings but has three Australian Open quarterfinals to her name, as well as last-eight showings at Roland-Garros and the US Open last year.

The American next faces former Roland-Garros finalist Marketa Vondrousova for a place in the semifinals.

In just her second Grand Slam main draw appearance, 16-year-old Mirra Andreeva was through to the Wimbledon fourth round with a 6-2, 7-5 victory over No.22 seed Anastasia Potapova. The teen qualifier will next face No.25 seed Madison Keys.

In the men's side, world No.7 Andrey Rublev escaped from a five-set thriller against Alexander Bublik in the opening match on centre court, overcoming the 23rd seed 7-5, 6-3, 6-7(6), 6-7(5), 6-4 to book his first Wimbledon quarterfinal appearance.

Roman Safiullin, a debutant at Wimbledon main draw, continued his fairytale run by upsetting No.26 seed Denis Shapovalov 3-6, 6-3, 6-1, 6-3 to reach the last-eight stage at a Grand Slam for the first time. 

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