IT was a tale of two time-outs.

Or perhaps you could call it a pair of trainers. The All England Club last night bore witness to another singular chapter in the Wimbledon journey of Andy Murray as the World No 3 booked his last 16 place in a match enlivened by two of the most remarkable pieces of physiotherapy you are ever likely to see.

The first man to suddenly pull up lame was the Scot's opponent Andreas Seppi. He called for the trainer to complain about a problem in his ankle or leg flexor at a time after the World No 3 had taken the first two sets 6-2 and we were on serve in the third. After a lengthy massage of the affected area, administered by Dr Clay Sniteman of Utah, Seppi was suddenly back on his sprightliest form.

Not so the Scot, whose serving shoulder was getting cold, but whose temper seemed to be rising. The end result was that he surrendered six games in a row, enough to see him see his faltering, painful serve broken three times as he surrendered his first set of the tournament, not to mention an early break in the fourth. It was then, rather than getting mad, that Murray decided to get even. It was his time to get some treatment from Dr Sniteman and soon he was giving Seppi a taste of his own medicine.

After receiving his own form of therapy from Dr Sniteman. "The trainer came out manipulated my back, gave it a few good cracks," said Murray. "He's like a 90 kilo guy lying right on top of you so it's not that pleasant".

Suddenly feeling himself again, now it was the World No 3's turn to reel off six games in a row. The 28-year-old from Dunblane took the set 6-1, and before you knew it he was into the second week at SW19 for the ninth time. All that was left was a meeting between the two men at the net, the 31-year-old Italian greeting his opponent with a joke that the pair had used the same tactics.

"It looks like [he got angry] because I won six games in a row," said Seppi. "Maybe then he used the same tactic after 1-0 for me in the third. Then six for him. I just said joking, like, Yeah, you used the same tactic as me when I called the physio. We were joking."

In truth, neither man are known for taking injury time-outs, unlike many, in a sport where such interruptions are a regular form of gamesmanship. "That's the first one I had this year," said Murray. "And I played 50 matches or something. Maybe I played more than that, but somewhere around there. And I very rarely have the trainer on the court.

"I do think medical time-outs do often break up the rhythm of matches," he added. "Because your heart rate slows down, you cool down during those moments. So for that first game or the first six, seven points when you get up from a medical time-out, it's not that easy. Then your body can start to warm up again and it's fine. They do often break rhythms and break the momentum of matches, just like toilet breaks at the end of the set when players are gone for 10, 15 minutes. There was a period where I struggled, but the way I finished the match, with that positive energy, is how hopefully I can go on."

Drama or no drama, when all was said and done, the Scot's supposedly treacherous path through the Wimbledon draw suddenly seems like a broad thoroughfare. While some, such as No 7 seed David Ferrer, have removed themselves from his way, others big hitters have had to be shunted out the way. After Rafa Nadal during the week, yesterday it was the turn of Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, the French Open semi-finalist, to bite the dust. Murray could now reach a semi-final with Roger Federer without having played any player seeded higher than Viktor Troicki, the World No 22, a man who is allergic to grass.

One giant obstacle remains, however, in the form of Ivo Karlovic. The 6ft 10in Croatian, now all of 36, won in five sets against Tsonga, with all three of the four sets decided in his favour coming in the form of tie-breaks. Karlovic has now served 136 aces through his first three rounds of action, and is one of just three men all year long who have managed to defeat Novak Djokovic.

Yesterday, he made it through to the last 16 despite being at the centre of another row over alleged foul play. Tsonga had set point to take this into a fifth and deciding set, when Karlovic clearly appeared to double-hit a volley at the net, right under the nose of the umpire. "I was going to the net and he hit a cross-court, and I just, like, stretched my arm," said Karlovic. "Then the ball hit like down on my racquet, and then because it hit down, my racquet went like this, and then it hit like here, and then boom, boom. But it was one motion so that is legal."

This was so-called Sportsman's Saturday, the great and good of world sport crammed into the royal box, little suspecting that Andy Murray was in the kind of mood to make them all feel rather inadequate. At times during this match, the No 3 tennis player in the world displayed the reflexes of a slip fielder, the obdurance of a prop forward, the close-range agility of a goalkeeper and the dancing footwork of a Strictly Come Dancing contestant. Boris Becker, coach of Novak Djokovic, also found himself outwitted by the Neanderthal elements of the crowd, responding to a chant to give the fans a wave, even if he had been goaded into another unwitting signal from the box.

Most of these sports have a fine dividing line between injury and gamesmanship at some point along the line too. While it was a match of momentum and mood swings, when one final ace arrived up the middle it was a mean and moody Murray who had booked his place in the last 16.