Kiwi doubles exponent Michael Venus moved a step closer to his second Grand Slam tennis crown, advancing to the semi-finals at Wimbledon.
He and South African partner Raven Klaasen have survived a four-hour marathon against Briton Jamie Murray and Brazilian Bruno Soares, 6-7(5) 7-6(5) 5-7 7-6(4) 6-4, in the quarter-finals.
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Drawn on Wimbledon's famed centrecourt, Venus and Klaasen seemed at home performing in front of a 10,000-strong audience.
"I thought it was unbelievable," said Venus afterwards. "Just walking out through the tunnel and past the people to get out there was so cool.
"Being out there, looking around and taking it all in... it was everything I ever imagined it would be.
"At one set-all, we felt 'we're even here, let's just keep going'. We lost the third, but kept fighting and forced a fourth-set tiebreaker, and then just backed ourselves to go for it."
Their opponents held the initiative in the fourth set, 2-1 up and entering a tiebreak for victory, but the Kiwi and South African held their nerve to draw even, and then break twice in the final set.
Play was held up during the fifth set, as the centrecourt roof was closed in fading light.
"It didn't take as long as I thought to close it - it closed pretty quick," reflected Venus on the interruption. "We just spoke about the things we felt had been working and what we could do better."
Venus and Klaasen held match points at 5-2, but could not capitalise, eventually breaking Soares to clinch the result.
"After having those match points, it's almost harder to serve out a match. There were a bit of nerves and we didn't play the game we wanted to play.
"But we played a great game at 5-4 and finished it off."
The 13th seeds now face unseeded Dane Frederik Nielsen and Briton Joe Salisbury in Thursday's (NZ time) semis.
Venus won the French Open men's doubles last year with American Ryan Harrison and has eight ATP career titles to his name.
"[That experience] definitely helped me out there today, playing on that court and in that environment," he said. "I felt like I really enjoyed my time on the court and it was a good feeling to have, because then I was able to relax and just play tennis."
He and Klaasen are a new combination this year, but they've won at Marseille and made the final at Hertogenbosch.
On the other side of the quarter-final draw, Kiwi Artem Sitak and Indian partner Divij Sharan lost a four-set thriller to Americans Jack Sock and Mike Bryan in 3h 44m.
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