London: Rafael Nadal's hopes of winning a third Wimbledon title are over for another year, after an epic five-set defeat by 16th seed Gilles Muller of Luxembourg, here on Monday.
Spaniard Nadal, a 15-time Grand Slam champion, fought back from two sets down before Muller took a fifth match point to win 6-3, 6-4, 3-6, 4-6, 15-13.
The four-hour-48-minute match ended Nadal's hopes of winning back-to-back French Open and Wimbledon titles for a joint-record third time.
Muller, 34, will play Croatia's seventh seed Marin Cilic in the last eight.
"That was tough," said Muller, who has reached his first Grand Slam quarter final since the 2008 US Open. "In the last two match points, I just said give it 100 per cent."
Nadal, 31, was considered one of the favourites to win the men's title after an excellent year in which he has reached the Australian Open final, losing to Roger Federer, and earned a record 10th triumph at Roland Garros.
But even his trademark competitiveness could not see off Muller in the gripping match.
Both players received a standing ovation and rapturous applause after the longest - and arguably finest - match of this year's tournament.
Nadal's mental resilience and physical endurance has long been lauded, but the cool-headed Muller impressively refused to buckle as he finally claimed his fifth match point over an hour and a half after missing his first.
Nadal served out nine games to stay in the contest as the pair exchanged 32 holds in a gripping finale. A tense climax saw the Spaniard save two match points to level at 5-5 and miss four break points of his own at 9-9.
Still the drama continued as Muller failed to convert two more match points at 10-9, until he earned the best win of his career by beating the world No. 2.
Earlier, defending champion Andy Murray, the top seed here, reached a 10th successive Wimbledon quarter final with a 7-6 (7-1), 6-4, 6-4 win over Benoit Paire of France.
The world No. 1 will face Sam Querrey, who he leads 7-1 in career meetings, for a place in the semi-finals.
Third seed Roger Federer reached his 50th Grand Slam quarter final, with a 6-4, 6-2, 6-4 win over Grigor Dimitrov. The seven-time Wimbledon champion will face Canada's Milos Raonic, the sixth seed. Raonic had defeated Federer in the semi-finals at Wimbledon in 2016.
Federer, 35, is also the second oldest man to make the quarter finals here, behind Ken Rosewall who was 39 when he reached the last-eight in 1971.
Raonic survived a marathon fourth round workout against rising German star Alexander Zverev, knocking out some pundits' outside bet for this year's title 4-6, 7-5, 4-6, 7-5, 6-1.
Seeded sixth and runner-up last year to Murray, Raonic kept his cool on the crunch points, taking five of eight opportunities to break while the 20-year-old 10th seed converted just three of 18.
