Carlos Moya rolled back the years to beat fellow 30-something Jonas Bjorkman 7-6, 6-2, 7-5 and reach the quarter-finals of the French Open for the fourth time in his career on Monday.
The two oldest players left in the draw stepped on court with a combined age of 65 and it was the younger of the pair, the 30-year-old Moya, who came up trumps.
The Spaniard, champion here in 1998, had trailed 5-2 in the opening set but once he overcame that wobble he wore down doubles specialist Bjorkman with a dogged display from the baseline.
Bjorkman, who had his shoulders massaged at the end of the second set, slapped a weary backhand into the net to bow out after two hours 38 minutes.
Moya, the 23rd seed, will next face either defending champion Rafael Nadal or Australian 14th seed Lleyton Hewitt.
Djokovic back on cruise control
Novak Djokovic underlined his growing stature in tennis to also charge into the quarter-finals for the second successive year with a 6-3, 6-3, 7-6 victory over Fernando Verdasco.
The Serbian sixth seed had been two points from defeat in his previous five-set thriller against French journeyman Olivier Patience but maintained cruise control against the 51st-ranked Spaniard.
With both players squandering a string of break points in the third set, Djokovic stepped on the accelerator in the tiebreak and sealed it 7-1 after Verdasco misfired a shot into the stands.
The result means three Serbians have reached the quarter-finals of a grand slam for the first time after Jelena Jankovic and Ana Ivanovic made it through in the women's draw.
Djokovic will face either 16th seed Marcos Baghdatis or Russian Igor Andreev for a place in the semi-finals.
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