Big-serving Croat Ivo Karlovic secured his place in the second week of Wimbledon for just the second time in seven visits to the All England Club with a 7-6 (7-5) 6-7 (5-7) 7-5 7-6 (7-5) victory over Jo-Wilfried Tsonga.

Ninth seed Tsonga simply had no answer to the brutal serving of Karlovic, who fired down a staggering 46 aces on his way to the fourth round.

The first set was predictably dominated by serve and when 22nd seed Karlovic grabbed the first mini-break of the tie-break, the powerful Croat took the set with another service winner.

The second set followed the same tone as the first, however this time it was 2008 Australian Open finalist Tsonga who seized the initiative in the tie-break before levelling the match at one set all.

The third set followed suit as Tsonga was helpless to prevent the deadly accurate and equally fast service game on show from Karlovic.

With his powerful serve coming under little threat, the world number 36 from Zagreb pounced clinically on the Frenchman's serve in the 12th game to snatch the third set 7-5.

With no breaks of serve in the fourth set, a third tie-break inevitably followed.

Karlovic struck first with the first mini-break when Tsonga fed him a comfortable put-away. But a poor volley from the Croatian following in his own serve restored the status quo.

The 22nd seed moved ahead again when Tsonga could not deal with the power of a forehand return, and he clinched the victory on his own serve - predictably with an ace, his 46th of the match.

The victory puts Karlovic through to a fourth-round meeting with another big server in Spanish seventh seed Fernando Verdasco.