London - Former Wimbledon finalist Angelique Kerber stepped up her bid to return to the title match with a 6-3, 7-6 (7/5) win against Switzerland's Belinda Bencic in the fourth round on Monday.
Kerber was beaten by Serena Williams in the 2016 final at the All England Club.
The 30-year-old German is seeded 11th and, after a week of shock defeat for her title rivals, that makes Kerber the highest ranked woman left in the draw.
Kerber, who won the Australian and US Open titles in 2016, is into her fourth Wimbledon quarter-final.
She faces Russian 14th seed Daria Kasatkina or Belgian world number 47 Alison Van Uytvanck on Tuesday.
Wimbledon results on Monday, the seventh day of the 2018 championships (x denotes seeded player):
Men
4th round
Roger Federer (SUI x1) bt Adrian Mannarino (FRA x22) 6-0, 7-5, 6-4
Women
4th round
Dominika Cibulkova (SVK) bt Hsieh Su-Wei (TPE) 6-4, 6-1
Jelena Ostapenko (LAT x12) bt Aliaksandra Sasnovich (BLR) 7-6 (7/4), 6-0
Angelique Kerber (GER x11) bt Belinda Bencic (SUI) 6-3, 7-6 (7/5)
Kiki Bertens (NED x20) bt Karolna Pliskova (CZE x7) 6-3, 7-6 (7/1)
Julia Goerges (GER x13) bt Donna Vekic (CRO) 6-3, 6-2
Camila Giorgi (ITA) bt Ekaterina Makarova (RUS) 6-3, 6-4
