In the women, world number one Serena Williams kept her bid for a record-equalling 22nd grand slam title on track, overpowering Russian 13th seed Svetlana Kuznetsova 7-5, 6-0.

Williams eventually shaded a first set that featured five breaks of serve and a break for drizzle when the Centre Court roof was closed.

She ran though her opponent without losing another game after play resumed at 5-5 in the first set.

Meanwhile, sister Venus became the oldest Wimbledon women’s quarter-finalist for 22 years as the five-time champion defeated Spanish 12th seed Carla Suarez Navarro 7-6 (7-3), 6-4.

Aged 36, Williams is the oldest to make the last eight since 37-year-old Martina Navratilova’s run to the final in 1994.

Williams will be making her 12th appearance in the last eight at Wimbledon, and her first since 2010, when she faces Kazakhstan’s Yaroslava Shvedova for a place in the semi-finals.

Federer told BBC TV: “Best of five matches are always tough. It needs lots of concentration, the finish line is far away and it can turn really quick.

“I’m happy with how I played, it is not easy as maybe it looked. Steve has picked up a lot of confidence in the last weeks and he has a nice game for grass but I think I mixed it up well here today.

“I would never have thought I would win the first four rounds in straight sets. The matches may be tough but rests are great for professional athletes, that’s huge.

“It is nice that I have never missed Wimbledon. You can always lose a tournament in the first week but never win it.

“I now need to play my best tennis. I have Cilic in the next round, he brushed me off the court in the US Open a few years ago and I hope to get him back.”

Ninth seed Cilic reached the quarter-finals for the third year running after Kei Nishikori quit with a rib injury midway through their fourth-round match.

Nishikori was trailing 6-1, 5-1 when he decided to follow the advice of his coach Michael Chang, who could be heard saying, “Don’t push it, it’s not worth it”.

The Japanese fifth seed, who swallowed a pill given by the trainer at the previous change of ends, shook his head at the umpire to indicate he could not longer continue before going up to Cilic to shake hands.

“It was too much pain, I could not really compete today. Every point I played it got worse. I did not want to but I had to retire,” said Nishikori.

Sam Querrey followed up his shock defeat of Novak Djokovic by beating French veteran Nicolas Mahut 6-4, 7-6 (7-5), 6-4 to reach his first grand slam quarter-final.

Querrey, the 28th seed, is the first American in the last eight at Wimbledon since Mardy Fish in 2011.

In the women, Slovakian 19th seed Dominika Cibulkova and bride-to-be sent world number three Agnieszka Radwanska crashing out with a surprise 6-3, 5-7, 9-7 fourth-round victory.

Cibulkova defeated Poland’s Radwanska en route to her first grass-court title at Eastbourne last month and emulated that result in a high-quality clash to secure her first Wimbledon quarter-final berth since 2011.

German fourth seed Angelique Kerber cruised into her third Wimbledon quarter-final with a 6-3, 6-1 thrashing of Japanese world number 49 Misaki Doi.

Agence France-Presse, Reuters