Andy Murray through to Wimbledon last eight with four-set win over Ivo Karlovic

Britain's Andy Murray is through to the quarter-finals of Wimbledon for the eighth consecutive year after beating Croatia's Ivo Karlovic 7-6 (9-7) 6-4 5-7 6-4 on Monday.

Murray furthered his reputation as one of the sharpest returners in the game to reach his 18th consecutive Grand Slam quarter-final, where he will play Canada's Vasek Pospisil on Wednesday.

The towering Karlovic had walloped down 136 aces in his first three matches and the the 6ft 11in Croat regularly fired down 130 mph missiles, adding another 29 to his tally, but looked on his way out as Murray came through a tense first set tie-break before breaking at the start of the next to take a two-set lead.

A cat-and-mouse third set, however, was decided when 36-year-old Karlovic broke in the 12th game, injecting some much-needed life into the match on Centre Court.

Murray, however, had too much guile and broke in the seventh game of the fourth.

Karlovic saved one match point but was powerless on the second as Murray stretched his career record over the veteran to 6-0.

Murray hit 62 winners to Karlovic's 75 but crucially only nine unforced errors to his rival's 32.

"I came up with some good lobs and passing shots. I just needed to keep him low," said Murray on his tactics of taking on Karlovic.

"It was an incredibly difficult match, it was mentally tiring because you just have to be ready when the chances come."

A place in the semi-finals rests on Murray beating Pospisil, who knocked out Britain's James Ward in round three and Viktor Troicki on Monday.

"He had a close one with James Ward and came back from two sets down today," Murray said.

"He'll be tired, but very confident, with a couple of comebacks he'll be feeling good about his game and he has a game that suits the grass with a big serve, so it'll be a tough match."