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German Sabine Lisicki sent another seismic shockwave through Wimbledon on Monday when she sent five-times champion Serena Williams packing from the tournament with a 6-2, 1-6, 6-4 fourth- round upset.
Top seed Williams, the overwhelming favourite for the title with her chief rivals already out, appeared to have turned the match around when she led 3-0 in the decider but Lisicki, the 2011 semi-finalist, rallied with a gripping fightback.
After breaking to lead 5-4, the 23rd seed secured victory on her second match point to set up a last-eight meeting with Estonian Kaia Kanepi.
"I am still shaking, I am so happy," Lisicki told the BBC as Williams followed second and third seeds Victoria Azarenka and Maria Sharapova out of a championship that is confounding expectations.
"Serena played a fantastic match, she is such a tough opponent. It is an amazing feeling to win this match. This is such a special place for me and the crowd were brilliant to me.
"I gave it everything I had, I fought for every single point to try to win it somehow. I'm not thinking about the next match yet."
After dropping just 11 games in the first week, her surprise exit, which mirrored those of former men's champions Roger Federer and Rafa Nadal last week, ended Williams's win streak at 34 matches and it was only her fourth loss in the last 76.
Lisicki took advantage of a somewhat sluggish Williams to seize the first set, her strong serve and fizzing groundstokes at times leaving the multiple Grand Slam winner rooted to the spot.
Li Na narrowly missed out on handing Italian Roberta Vinci the dreaded double bagel as the Chinese sixth seed romped into the Wimbledon quarter-finals with a 6-2, 6-0 victoryy.
The 2011 French Open champion served for the first set at 5-0 up but was broken by the doubles specialist, who raised loud cheers on Court Three as she finally registered a game against her name on the scoreboard.
The 30-year-old Vinci, seeded 11th, held her next service game but from then on Li was an unstoppable force as she won the next seven games to reach the last eight at Wimbledon for the third time.
David Ferrer wore down Croatia's Ivan Dodig with his high-energy scrambling to move into the Wimbledon quarter-finals with a 6-7 (3), 7-6 (6), 6-1, 6-1 win.
The Spanish fourth seed arrived 10 minutes late on Court Two and was slow to impose himself on the match, losing the first set in a tiebreak before winning the second the same way.
Dodig, ranked 49th in the world, could not maintain his consistency as the match wore on and his serve, which had been such a weapon in the early stages, faltered to allow Ferrer to turn the screw.
After failing to win a point on the Dodig serve for four successive games in the second set, Ferrer broke three times in the third and twice in the fourth to wrap it up.
Ferrer, who has now reached seven successive Grand Slam quarter-finals, will next face eighth seed Juan Martin Del Potro or Italian Andreas Seppi.
Petra Kvitova flew the flag for former Wimbledon champions when she became the first to make the quarter-finals with a 7-6, 6-3 win over doughty Spaniard Carla Suarez Navarro.
It was not all plain sailing for the 2011 champion, who has yet to rediscover the consistency that took her to world number two 20 months ago.
"I was pretty nervous today...I didn't play my best, especially in the first set. But it's important to win the last point which was what I did," Kvitova said.
Laura Robson began the second week of Wimbledon looking to become the first British woman to reach the quarter-finals since 1984 but took just over 90 minutes to depart in tears as she was beaten in straight sets by Estonian Kaia Kanepi.
Robson, 19, awoke to newspaper stories predicting fame, riches and good odds of a future Grand Slam title but in a ragged, error-strewn display she was dispatched 7-6(6), 7-5 by the big-serving 36th-ranked Kanepi who reached the quarter-finals for the second time.
Laura Robson, seeking to become the first home woman quarter-finalist since Joe Durie 29 years ago, broke for a 5-4 lead in the first set but was loose again when serving for it and was outgunned in the tiebreak despite again having an early mini-break.
Robson, roared on by a packed Number One Court crowd desperately willing her on, Robson just could not find her touch with her normally destructive forehand and Kanepi broke for a 6-5 lead and, after seeing four match points saved, took a deserved victory on her fifth.
While Robson left the court crying tears of anger and frustration, Kanepi can look forward to a last-eight battle with Sabine Lisicki after the German upset top seed Serena Williams.
Poland has waited 33 years for a male quarter-finalist at a Grand Slam but two arrived within a few of minutes of each other at Wimbledon on Monday as Jerzy Janowicz and Lukasz Kubot set up an unlikely last-eight clash.
The big-serving Janowicz edged past Juergen Melzer 3-6, 7-6, 6-4, 4-6, 6-4, collapsing to the court in disbelief after finally subduing the Austrian veteran.
130th-ranked Lukasz Kubot launched into his party piece can-can dance routine to celebrate a 4-6, 6-3, 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 victory over fellow outsider Adrian Mannarino of France.
The winner of his match against Janowicz will be the first Polish man to reach a Grand Slam semi-final.
Wojtek Fibak was the last Polish man to reach a Grand Slam quarter-final, losing three times in the last eight in 1980.