Rafael Nadal completed a stunning fightback to beat Mikhail Youzhny in five sets and reach the Wimbledon quarter-finals.

The world number two was overpowered by the Russian's serve as he lost the first two sets without forcing a break point, before launching his comeback when he finally made the breakthrough early in the third set.

Youzhny was hindered by a long-standing back injury which required treatment during and after the third set, but it was Nadal's quality which proved decisive.

The Spaniard raced through the last three sets to win 4-6 3-6 6-1 6-2 6-2.

Nadal's next challenge is against Tomas Berdych, the seventh seed from the Czech Republic who defeated Jonas Bjorkman 6-4 6-0 6-7 6-0.

Bjorkman reached the semi-finals 12 months ago but his run this year ended in controversy as he was warned for ball abuse and refused to shake the hand of the umpire.

Marcos Baghdatis is through to the quarter-finals for the second successive year after a straight-sets victory over Nikolay Davydenko.

The Cypriot 10th seed won tie-breaks in each of the first two sets before clinching the third for a 7-6 7-6 6-3 success.

Baghdatis will meet fourth seed Novak Djokovic for a place in the semi-finals after he beat Lleyton Hewitt 7-6 7-6 4-6 7-6 in a match lasting more than four hours.

Djokovic won the three tie-breaks to reach his first Wimbledon quarter-final, crucially breaking back in the fourth set as Hewitt served for the set at 5-4.

Rain intervened 10 games into the quarter-final between Roger Federer and Juan Carlos Ferrero, which is level at 5-5 and 40-40 on Federer's serve.

The defending champion had been cruising towards the first set at 5-2 before Ferrero hit back to win the next three games.

Andy Roddick and Richard Gasquet will begin their quarter-final match on Friday after being forced to abandon their warm-up by the poor weather.

Venus Williams will meet Ana Ivanovic in the Wimbledon semi-finals after both players secured wins in the last eight on Thursday.

Svetlana Kuznetsova put up a decent fight against Williams but the American proved too good in the end, the three-time champion sealing a 6-3 6-4 success on Centre Court.

And later Ivanovic reached her first Wimbledon semi after saving three match points against Nicole Vaidisova in a battle of the teenagers.

Ivanovic, who lost to Justine Henin in the French Open final last month, dropped the first set and was 5-3 down in the third when Vaidisova missed her three opportunities to win.

Ivanovic held serve for 5-4 and then broke to level the match before securing a 4-6 6-2 7-5 success.

"I still haven't realised what happened. It was an unbelievable match," she said later.

"To have the chance to play on Centre Court was amazing, so I was little bit nervous in the beginning.

"It was a very emotional match for me. She's a great player and she played some really good tennis.

"I had to fight for every point. I was a break down in the second and third sets. To come back and win it was amazing."

Williams, the 23rd seed, became the lowest-ranked woman to win the Wimbledon singles title when she won it for the third time two years ago as the 14th seed.

She has won just one WTA Tour since, but has got better as this tournament has gone on and she explained why.

"In the first round I had a bad set and a few games," she said. "I had to find a way to get out of it. I rely on my experience, anything else I can get - fight, athleticism, techniques, anything.

"I'm really a big-match player. I get up for these matches. I feel like I know what I'm doing. I expect so much from myself. I expect to come off playing very well.''