British pair Julian Cash and Lloyd Glasspool held their nerve in a tense final-set tie-break to knock out defending men’s doubles champions Henry Patten and Harri Heliovaara to reach the semi-finals at Wimbledon.
Fifth seeds Cash and Glasspool, who are chasing their first Grand Slam trophy as a pairing, won 6-4 4-6 7-6 (10-8).
The pair arrived at Wimbledon in trophy-winning form, having become the first all-British pairing to win the men’s doubles title at Queen’s in the Open era, before adding the Eastbourne title to their collection.
Their victory means it could be an all-British clash in the semi-finals, as they will face the winners of the match between Joe Salisbury and Neal Skupski versus Marcel Granollers and Horacio Zeballos.
Two-time major winners Briton Patten and Finland’s Heliovaara were given a walkover after France’s Pierre-Hugues Herbert and Australian team-mate Jordan Thompson, who had been suffering with a back injury, withdrew from their last-16 tie.
That should have meant they were fresh for this Court-One encounter, but were broken at 4-4 and Cash and Glasspool held to love to take the first set.
The reigning champions fought their way back into the encounter by taking the second set and the pairs battled to a tie-break in the decider.
There, Glasspool secured a mini-break to put them 9-8 ahead before he then served the match out to secure the win.