Just as the top four men's seeds seemed set to contest the Wimbledon semi-finals for the first time in 20 years, Frenchman Richard Gasquet fired a broadside of backhands straight through the script.
Defending champion Novak Djokovic, seven-times title holder Roger Federer and home hope Andy Murray all kept to their side of the bargain with straight sets wins at the London tournament. But Swiss Stanislas Wawrinka, the French Open champion, let the side down.
Then again, there was no shame in a 6-4 4-6 3-6 6-4 11-9 defeat against a daring man playing one of the matches of his life in a contest dubbed "the battle of the backhands".
Gasquet, a former world junior champion who has fallen short of the heights expected of him, served for the match at 5-3 in the fifth set but fourth seed Wawrinka broke back, gesturing with a finger pointed to his head that he had the mental edge.
But Gasquet's trademark single-hander, like Wawrinka's near identical backhand stroke, showed remarkable resolve to withstand a barrage.
With Wawrinka a proven warrior and a bona fide member of the elite after winning the 2014 Australian Open and succeeding Rafa Nadal as French Open champion, you feared the worst for Gasquet.
As the backhands fizzed diagonally across the net with ever-increasing intensity the 21st seed kept his nose in front.
Five times Wawrinka held serve to stay alive. At the sixth time of asking, however, Gasquet forged 0-40 ahead and, although two match points went begging, Wawrinka fired a backhand long to end the duel.
While Gasquet in full flow has always been a joy to behold, his mental fortitude has been questioned. He lost to Australian Nick Kyrgios at Wimbledon last year despite having nine match points and two years ago at Roland Garros he went down 8-6 in a fifth set to Wawrinka.
"It's a revenge for me a little bit," he said. "It's great to win. After 2007, it's been a long time. I'm proud because there are big players in the semis. I'm the worst when you see Federer, Djokovic and Murray."
Gasquet will have to scale the same heights, and some, to have any hope of reaching his first grand slam showpiece at the 43rd attempt as Djokovic awaits in the semi-final.
A few weeks ago on Paris clay he managed only six games against the world number one Serb who clinically took US Open champion Marin Cilic apart 6-4 6-4 6-4 on Wednesday.
After Djokovic's scare against Kevin Anderson in the previous round, when he extricated himself from a deep hole after a thrilling five-setter, Djokovic cruised into his 27th grand slam semi-final after extending his domination of Croatian Cilic to 13-0.
Federer was more inconvenienced by a couple or irritating rain delays as he swept past Gilles Simon in the day's first Switzerland v France contest on Court One, winning 6-3 7-5 6-2. The only blot was finally dropping a service game after 116 successive holds stretching back to last month's Halle Open.
Third seed Murray, playing in the quarter-finals for the eighth year in a row, was kept on his toes by the only non-European in the last eight, Canada's unseeded Vasek Pospisil, but with a royal audience in the shape of Prince William and his wife the Duchess of Cambridge he delivered a 6-4 7-5 6-4 win.
He has faced nobody ranked higher than 23 so far but things are about to get considerably trickier with second seed Federer looming on Friday.
The last of the Swiss maestro's 17 grand slam titles reduced Murray to tears on finals day in 2012, though a few months after that Murray beat the Swiss on Centre Court to win Olympic gold.
Sharapova to face Williams
Maria Sharapova would have done well not to have watched Serena Williams out-slug Victoria Azarenka in a Wimbledon quarter-final of extraordinary quality on Tuesday.
The Russian fourth seed is blocking Williams' path to an eighth Wimbledon final and judging by the way the American bludgeoned her way past Azarenka after losing the first set, she will need to reinforce the barricades, then hope the 33-year-old has an off day.
Sharapova has become a punchbag for Williams since 2004, the year she stunned the tennis world by beating the Amrican to the Wimbledon title. She beat her again that year but since then her 0-16 record is a depressing tale of woe.
No wonder Williams is looking forward to Thursday's Centre Court date against a player with whom her relationship is, at best, professionally respectful.
"I love playing Maria. I think she brings out the best in me," the 33-year-old said, without a hint of irony, after a 3-6 6-2 6-3 defeat of former world number one Azarenka -- a match in which a supreme Williams produced 47 winners, including 17 aces, and only 12 unforced errors.
Williams avoids talking about the possibility of a calendar-year grand slam but with the Australian and French Opens already secured and just two more wins required to clinch the third leg of the sport's ultimate feat.
Waiting in the final for the victor will be either Poland's Agnieszka Radwanska, who Williams beat to win her fifth and last Wimbledon title in 2012, or Spain's 20th-ranked Garbine Muguruza.
Muguruza seized the chance to become the first Spanish woman to reach the last four since Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario in 1997, beating Swiss Timea Bacsinszky 7-5 6-3.
American youngster Madison Keys was unable to unlock the defences of 2012 runner-up Radwanska, though, losing 7-6(3) 3-6 6-3 with the Pole now facing Muguruza.
