Belinda Bencic advanced to her first Wimbledon quarterfinal -- 11 years after her All England Club debut -- by beating 18th-seeded Ekaterina Alexandrova 7-6 (4), 6-4 on Monday.
Bencic, who lost in the fourth round on three previous occasions, failed to convert five match points while serving at 5-3 in the second set. But on the sixth one, Alexandrova sent a forehand long on No. 1 Court.
"For you guys it was entertaining," Bencic said about that marathon game at 5-3, where Alexandrova finally converted her fourth break point to stay in the match. "For me it was a big stress."
Bencic's best result at a Grand Slam was reaching the semifinals at the 2019 US Open, where she also reached the quarters on two other occasions.
The Tokyo Olympic champion, playing at Wimbledon for the ninth time, had not been into the last eight at any of the other three majors, until now.
"I always got stuck in the fourth round [at Wimbledon]," Bencic said in an on-court interview. "So it was so important for me today to be able to kind of break through to the quarterfinal."
Bencic missed last year's grass-court Grand Slam tournament while she was on maternity leave, having given birth to her first child -- a daughter named Bella -- in April 2024.
She was one of nine mothers in the Wimbledon singles draw, but the only one to reach the round of 16.
Bencic said traveling with a child on tour is still relatively easy while Bella is so young, but that she's spending a lot more time taking pictures when she's at tournaments.
"I'm juggling it like every mom does," Bencic said. "So, props to the moms."
Bencic will next play seventh-seeded Mirra Andreeva, who eased past No. 10 Emma Navarro 6-2, 6-3 to also reach the Wimbledon quarterfinals for the first time.
Also, No. 19 Liudmila Samsonova reached her first Grand Slam quarterfinal by beating Jessica Bouzas Maneiro 7-5, 7-5 on No. 2 Court.
Samsonova entered the tournament as one of three players in the WTA's top 20 yet to reach a major quarterfinal, alongside No. 15 Diana Shnaider and Alexandrova.
Samsonova has yet to drop a set this tournament and will face No. 8 Iga Swiatek. The five-time major champion reached her second Wimbledon quarterfinal by beating No. 23 Clara Tauson 6-4, 6-1 in 65 minutes.
Swiatek had been prepared to face a barrage of aces from Tauson, who came into the match having served the most (27) in this year's women's tournament.
However, instead of adding to her count, Tauson surrendered the first set with a double fault and from then on her game fell apart as Swiatek won eight of the last nine games.
"I'm not sure if Clara was feeling that well, she said she didn't sleep well, and I hope she has a good recovery," Swiatek told the crowd. "It's never easy to keep your focus. ... I hope she's going to be fine."
Tauson, who had never won a match in three previous appearances at Wimbledon, said she "couldn't really breathe" and didn't have any power in her legs or arm, which made it difficult to serve.
"If you want to beat Iga, you have to be 110%. Today I was probably around 30 and not feeling so great," Tauson said. "I'm really sad that it had to end like this. Today was really tough for me."
ESPN Research, The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.