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 Two-metres tall Anderson hurled down 22 aces, the last one on match
point, to send Wawrinka spinning to his first loss since he beat
world number one Novak Djokovic in spellbinding fashion in the
Roland Garros final earlier this month.
Anderson, the world number 17, now has four consecutive wins against
Wawrinka, the first of that sequence being the Swiss's first loss
after he won the 2014 Australian Open.
"That's a funny coincidence," Anderson, who is in the process of
taking out dual U.S. citizenship, told reporters after moving into
the quarter-finals.
"I've just played these guys a lot of times, and I think it gives me
confidence, knowing the guy I beat today just won the French Open
and I watched him playing and beat the best players in the world
doing it.
"A lot of things I have worked on came to fruition today."
Wawrinka, the second seed at the prestigious Wimbledon
curtain-raiser who needed only 49 minutes to beat Nick Kyrgios on
Tuesday, did not play badly.
But even his lethal backhand could make no impression on the mighty
Anderson serve.
He fought hard, saving five match points and he missed a golden
opportunity to win the second set before succumbing.
Wawrinka will rue the two set points he failed to convert on the
Anderson delivery at 6-5 in the opening set but even more so the two
he had in a drawn-out second set tiebreak after recovering from 6-3
down.
The forehand he sprayed wide at 11-10 when the court was at his
mercy produced a look of disbelief.
"Not my day with tiebreaks," Wawrinka, who lost two more later with
doubles partner Grigor Dimitrov, said.
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"He was serving big, and especially really close to the line, really
touching the zone. It was tough for me."
Seventh seeded Frenchman Gilles Simon earlier beat Australian
teenager Thanasi Kokkinakis 6-4 6-2 despite losing the first nine
points of the match.
Simon will face Milos Raonic in the quarter-finals after the
Canadian third seed beat Richard Gasquet 6-4 6-7(5) 6-1 despite
still feeling some discomfort from the surgery he had on a nerve in
his foot that meant he misses the French Open.
"It's very unpredictable, so pretty much every other day I'm in
constant contact with the doctor that did the procedure," he said.
"I'm in constant care of the physio that I travel with."
Spain's Guillermo Garcia-Lopez also advanced to the next round with
a 6-3 7-6(4) win over Ukraine's Alexandr Dolgopolov
(Editing by Pritha Sarkar/Peter Rutherford)
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