Juan Carlos Ferrero became the first wild-card entry to reach the Wimbledon quarter-finals since champion Goran Ivanisevic in 2001.

Ferrero, who knocked out 10th seed Fernando Gonzalez in the previous round, disposed of eighth seed Gilles Simon on Court Three, winning 7-6 6-3 6-2 in just under two hours.

The 29-year-old is a former world number one but was ranked 115th on May 11 - the cut-off date for Wimbledon entries - and therefore needed a wild card.

But he more than justified receiving one with a superb display against Simon, who served for the opening set at 5-3 but lost his serve and was outplayed from then on.

Ferrero took the first set tie-break 7-4 and secured the vital break midway through the second set as an increasingly frustrated Simon dumped a forehand into the net.

Not known as one of the game's big servers, Ferrero was nevertheless holding serve comfortably and took the second set 6-3 before racing through the third in just 25 minutes.

The former French Open champion claimed two breaks of serve - the second courtesy of a Simon double fault - and served out to seal victory and a last-eight clash with either Andy Murray or Stanislas Wawrinka.

Ferrero, who also reached the Wimbledon quarter-finals in 2007 when he lost to Roger Federer, said: "I'm very happy about the match because at the beginning it was a little bit tough to get his rhythm.

"I think he played very solidly at the beginning with no mistakes and he was everywhere, he was running very well on grass. But then, once I got his rhythm, I think I start to play a little bit better.

"And after winning the first set I think I played very well for the rest of the match. I think I recovered in my mind, focused on my game and not fixing on his game.

"I tried at the beginning to not make many mistakes but the way I was playing the whole tournament was to be aggressive all the time. I decided to be like this and that's the way I played."

Asked about the chances of matching Ivanisevic and winning the tournament as a wild card, Ferrero added: "I would like to repeat what he did but of course it's a little bit difficult to say yet.

"But I'm pretty happy about the wild card and happy about the game that I'm playing."