Jordan Thompson certainly likes Surbiton. The champion at last year's Surbiton Trophy – one of the grass-court warm up tournaments for Wimbledon – eased into the last eight again with victory over American Zachary Svajda.
Thompson, the world No.76, beat Denis Kudla of the US last year to win his first career trophy on grass.
The 29-year-old from Sydney breezed through the first set on Thursday, and despite a few errors in windy conditions in the second set, emerged victorious 6-2 7-5.
Thompson, also twice a beaten finalist at Surbiton, in southwest London, was utterly dominant in the first set, dropping only three points on his serve.
It wasn't all plain sailing in the second, though, and Thompson was heard to shout "Oh, this is the worst" as he slipped to 3-5 down against the 20-year-old Californian.
But he then won four games in a row to clinch victory, claiming 84 per cent of points on his first serve.
Thompson will be back on Friday for a quarter-final against fellow Aussie Rinky Hijikata, who won two tiebreakers to beat Ilya Ivashka, of Belarus.
Earlier, British No.1 Dan Evans suffered a surprise loss as he was beaten in straight sets by Canadian Gabriel Diallo.
The world No. 146 won 7-5 6-2 to book a quarter-final place against Austria's Jurij Rodionov.
The pick of the quarter-final matches is undoubtedly Australian No.5 seed Jason Kubler against Andy Murray, the two-time Wimbledon champion and No.2 seed.
