Murray advances to Wimbledon quarterfinals

Wimbledon, England – Andy Murray and David Ferrer booked spots in the men's quarterfinals at Wimbledon.

Rain on Monday forced five men's fourth-round matches to be either suspended or postponed. The fourth-seeded Murray was in the second set when play was halted and on Tuesday came back to finish a thorough 7-5, 6-2, 6-3 triumph against 16th-seeded Croat Marin Cilic.

Murray has reached the semifinals each of the last three years at Wimbledon and expectations may be even loftier this fortnight. He is trying to give Britain its first male Wimbledon champion since Fred Perry back in 1936, and is the highest-seeded player in his half of the draw after the second-round ouster of two-time champion Rafael Nadal last week.

The consistent Murray will appear in a seventh straight Grand Slam and fifth consecutive Wimbledon quarterfinal.

Next up for the three-time Grand Slam runner-up will be seventh-seeded Spanish star David Ferrer, who whipped ninth-seeded former U.S. Open champion Juan Martin del Potro of Argentina 6-3, 6-2, 6-3.

Ferrer was ultra-clean on Day 8, committing only eight unforced errors and zero double faults while advancing in just under two hours. He also broke a lethargic del Potro five times while holding his serve throughout.

The 30-year-old Ferrer leads the ATP World Tour with 47 match wins this year (47-8), including a perfect 9-0 mark on grass, and has now reached the quarterfinals at all four Grand Slam events for his career.

Also advancing Tuesday was 27th-seeded German Philipp Kohlschreiber and 31st-seeded German Florian Mayer. Kohlschreiber took care of American qualifier Brian Baker 6-1, 7-6 (7-4), 6-3, while Mayer eliminated 18th-seeded Frenchman Richard Gasquet 6-3, 6-1, 3-6, 6-2. Kohlschreiber will now appear in his first-ever Grand Slam quarterfinal, while his fellow 28-year-old and countryman Mayer has reached a major quarterfinal for the second time in his career, with the first coming back in 2004 in his first appearance at Wimbledon.

Kohlschreiber awaits the Jo-Wilfried Tsonga-Mardy Fish winner, while Mayer earned a quarterfinal date with top-seeded Novak Djokovic, who was one of three men to finish fourth-round play Monday. The defending champion Djokovic eased past fellow Serb Viktor Troicki, 6-3, 6-1, 6-3.

Also winning Monday were third-seeded six-time champion Roger Federer and No. 26 seed Mikhail Youzhny. Federer brushed off a minor back ailment in the first set to win in four against Belgian Xavier Malisse and will next take on Youzhny, who went five sets to beat Uzbekistan's Denis Istomin.