Five men make maiden appearance at Wimbledon fourth round

LONDON: The men's fourth round will feature five men making their maiden appearance at the fourth round stage.

France's Kenny De Schepper, the 26-year-old world number 80, beat Argentine 22nd seed Juan Monaco, 6-4, 7-6 (10/8), 6-4 to book a last-16 spot at a major for the first time.

Poland's Lukasz Kubot, ranked 130, also made the fourth round in 2011, and is the second Pole to reach the last-16 after 24th seed Jerzy Janowicz also booked his place on Friday.

Kubot beat 25th seed Benoit Paire 6-1, 6-3, 6-4 and next faces French world number 111 Adrian Mannarino who has made the last-16 at a major for the first time in 14 attempts.

Left-hander De Schepper will face experienced Fernando Verdasco after the Spanish former top 10 player, now at 54 in the world, cruised past temperamental Latvian Ernests Gulbis, 6-2, 6-4, 6-4.

Russian 20th seed Mikhail Youzhny, a quarter-finalist in 2012, defeated Serbia's Viktor Troicki 6-3, 6-4, 7-5 and goes on to face British second seed Andy Murray.

Spanish fourth seed David Ferrer, a quarter-finalist last year, managed to escape the caranage.

But he needed five sets to beat Ukraine's Alexandr Dolgopolov 6-7 (6/8), 7-6 (7/2), 2-6, 6-1, 6-2.

Ferrer will face Croatia's Ivan Dodig, the world 49, for a place in the quarter-finals.

Czech seventh seed Tomas Berdych, the runner-up in 2010, claimed his ninth win in nine meetings with South Africa's Kevin Anderson, coming through 3-6, 6-3, 6-4, 7-5.

Berdych takes on unseeded Australian Bernard Tomic, a quarter-finalist in 2011, who put out French ninth seed, Richard Gasquet, 7-6 (9/7), 5-7, 7-5, 7-6 (7/5).

Dodig reached his first fourth round at Wimbledon when Dutchman Igor Sijsling quit trailing 6-0, 6-1, 1-0.

Sijsling's withdrawal equalled the injury pullouts record of 13 from 2008.

Italian 23rd seed Andreas Seppi beat Japan's Kei Nishikori, 3-6, 6-2, 6-7 (4/7), 6-1, 6-4, also for a maiden last-16 place.

Seppi will face Argentine eighth seed Juan Martin Del Potro who defeated Slovenia's Grega Zemlja 7-5, 7-6 (7/3), 6-0.

In the women's draw, Polish fourth seed Agnieszka Radwanska, the runner-up to Williams last year, defeated Madison Keys of the United States, 7-5, 4-6, 6-3

She will face 2010 semi-finalist, Tsvetana Pironkova of Bulgaria who defeated Petra Martic of Croatia, 6-1, 4-6, 6-2.

Chinese sixth seed Li Na survived a roller-coaster of a battle to edge Czech veteran Klara Zakopalova, 4-6, 6-0, 8-6.

Next up for Li is Italian 11th seed Roberta Vinci who saw off Slovakia's Dominika Cibulkova, 6-1, 6-4.

The 2011 champion Petra Kvitova, the eighth seed and highest ranked player in her half after the exits of Sharapova and Azarenka, reached the fourth round with a 6-3, 2-6, 6-3 defeat of Russian 25th seed Ekaterina Makarova. (AFP)