It was yet another gruelling encounter but, after once again demonstrating immense fighting spirit, Elina Svitolina – in the eyes of most onlookers at least – is now the favourite to top the women’s singles podium at Tokyo 2020.

On a day when No. 2 seed Naomi Osaka’s dreams of triumphing at her home Olympic Games were dashed by world No. 42 Marketa Vondrousova, Svitolina stood firm to take her place in the quarter-finals.

It was far from straightforward, however, and for the third round in succession the 26-year-old, who is the highest-ranked player remaining in the women’s draw, required a third set as her tussle with Maria Sakkari of Greece duly went the distance.

Svitolina eventually prevailed 5-7 6-3 6-4 and will now face Italy’s Camila Giorgi for a place in the last four. For her part, Giorgi continued the giant-killing theme of the women’s draw by overcoming Czech Republic’s Karolina Pliskova.

“Battle” is a word which Svitolina used repeatedly during her post-match interviews, both to describe her clash with Sakkari and her upcoming bout with Giorgi. If her Tokyo adventure is to have the happiest of endings, she knows only too well there is plenty of the mountain still to scale.

 “I know her [Giorgi’s] game. It’s not going to be a big surprise for me,” said Ukraine's Svitolina. “She strikes the ball big so I have to be ready for that. It’s going to be another tough battle, so I’ll try and bring my best game.

“I only look to my next match. It is what it is and I have my next tough opponent. I have to recover physically to bring a good game tomorrow.

“I am trying not to think about my body but it’s hurting here and there. In the end, I’m very happy with the win today. It was another tough battle but it definitely brings me a lot of confidence and I will now spend hours recovering and will be ready for tomorrow.”

Not that rankings or past glories have counted for anything here – an overspill from Rio 2016 when Puerto Rico’s Monica Puig stunned the world to win gold – but Svitolina has experience on her side.

Having defeated Olympic royalty in the form of Serena Williams in Rio, this will be the second successive Games at which she has reached the quarter-finals. She is also the only player remaining in the women’s draw to have previously featured in the last eight at an Olympics.

But beware. On a day when tropical storm Nepartak brought rain and gusty winds to the Japanese capital and forced the closure of the Centre Court roof, the pathway for the more established player continued to prove treacherous.

Following her historic triumph over Osaka, Vondrousova, who reached the 2019 Roland Garros final, will now face Paula Badosa for a place in the semi-finals. Badosa, who like Vondrousova is an Olympic debutant and unseeded, defeated Nadia Podoroksa of Argentina 6-2 6-3.

In the top half of the draw, Spain’s Garbine Muguruza, who is the seventh seed, progressed at the expense of Alison van Uytvanck, who had accounted for two-time Grand Slam champion Petra Kvitova on Monday, winning 6-4 6-1.

The 27-year-old, herself a two-time Grand Slam winner, will now draw swords with Kazakhstan’s Elena Rybakina, who disposed of Donna Vekic of Croatia in straight sets.

No. 9 seed Belinda Bencic of Switzerland is also through to the quarter-finals after dispatching Roland Garros champion Barbora Krejcikova, recovering from a set down to triumph 1-6 6-2 6-3.

It proved a hugely successful day for Bencic, who also teamed up with Viktorija Golubic as the pair reached the quarter-finals of the women’s doubles following a 3-6 6-1 11-9 triumph over Spaniards Muguruza and Carla Suarez Navarro. 

Before basking in the glow of her own victories, Bencic afforded herself a moment to toast her nation’s medal-winning prowess in other sports – Switzerland achieved a clean sweep of the podium in the women’s mountain biking.

“A Swiss day in all matters,” she said. “We also had great results in different sports for Switzerland. It’s kind of very motivating. I’m super happy now. It was a really great day.”

Lying in wait for Bencic in the last eight of the singles is Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova who defeated Ashleigh Barty’s conqueror, Sara Sorribes Tormo, 6-1 6-3 and in the process made history.

Pavlyuchenkova, a Grand Slam finalist on the clay courts of Paris last month, set a record for the fewest games dropped in reaching the last eight of the women’s singles since Olympic tennis returned as a full-medal sport in 1988. The 13th seed has dropped just seven games in victories over Sara Errani, Anna-Lena Friedsam and Sorribes Tormo.

“She is a very dangerous opponent,” added Bencic. “Right now, she is playing the best tennis of her whole career. For sure, it’s a very difficult match, like always.

“Every match, your opponent is very difficult. I’m really happy about today. I go with a free mind tomorrow. I think I did a great result here and I really can just enjoy now.”

In the men’s draw, Greece’s Stefanos Tsitsipas continued his quest for Olympic gold by overcoming Frances Tiafoe of the United States 6-3 6-4 in the day’s first match on Centre Court.

The Athens-born 22-year-old will face Ugo Humbert in the round of 16 after the Frenchman recovered from a set down to beat Miomir Kecmanovic of Serbia 4-6 7-6(5) 7-5.

No. 8 seed Diego Schwartzman of Argentina also advanced, beating Czech Republic’s Tomas Machac 6-4 7-5, setting up a showdown with Karen Khachanov for a place in the last eight. Khachanov overpowered Australia’s James Duckworth 7-5 6-1.

Elsewhere, Great Britain’s Liam Broady recorded a munumental victory over Wimbledon semi-finalist Hubert Hurkacz, beating the world No. 12 7-5 3-6 6-3. The 27-year-old will now face France’s Jeremy Chardy in the third round following his 7-5 4-6 6-3 defeat of ROC’s Aslan Karatsev.

For world No. 143 Broady, this was the biggest win of his career by some considerable margin. He said: “It’s obviously a career-best win at a career-high moment, representing GB at the Olympics. It couldn’t have gone better.

“I think it helped watching Hubert a lot over the last few years – I watched him a lot last night. The team put together a few clips for me of him playing against lefties, to sort of get a rough idea of how he plays, and that helped a lot with being more comfortable out there.

“It’s quite a difficult situation for him – he probably has no idea how I play. No fault of his own, obviously, just not many people watch the Challengers.

“I don’t think anyone expects very much of me and that works well for me. Over the last year and a half, I’ve started to put a few results together and started to build stable foundations within my tennis off the court, and that’s starting to pay off this year.”

Ilya Ivashka of Belarus, meanwhile, prevailed 6-7(4) 6-3 6-3 from his tussle with Mikhail Kukushkin of Kazakhstan and will now pit his wits against home favourite Kei Nishikori, who defeated Marcos Giron of the United States 7-6(5) 3-6 6-1.