Angry Murray made to wait after Fish walks

The third seed confronted umpire Cedric Mourier and supervisor Tom Barnes after it was decided to postpone the match with the score locked at 4-6 6-1 3-3.

Fish had just surrendered a 3-0 lead in the decisive set when he made his request to abandon a contest that had started at 7.10pm and was being played amid gloomy conditions.

Barnes agreed and Fish gathered his equipment and walked off without a word, leaving a bemused Murray stood on the baseline ready to continue.

When the Scottish third seed realised what had happened, he approached Mourier and Barnes to complain about the decision.

"Marty says he doesn't want to play so we stop playing. The umpire didn't consult anyone," Murray said on centre court.

"That came out of nowhere. The weather was absolutely fine. It's ridiculous.

"The only reason he wanted to stop was because it was 3-3."

A rollercoaster match was halted with Murray clawing back the ascendancy and the showdown for a place in the last eight will resume at 12.30 today.

Of the other top seeds, Rafael Nadal precariously negotiated his way through, but Novak Djokovic, Andy Roddick and Marin Cilic were all dumped out.

Nadal endured a challenging afternoon before emerging an unconvincing 7-6 (7/4) 4-6 6-4 winner against Denis Istomin of Uzbekistan.

The world No 1 and 2008 Queen's champion was troubled by a hamstring injury after the second set and had the top of his right leg massaged, delaying play for several minutes.

Roddick became the first big-name casualty of this year's tournament when he slumped to 6-4 7-6 (10/8) defeat by Dudi Sela of Israel.

Roddick's exit was later trumped by the exit of second seed Djokovic, who was beaten 6-3 4-6 6-2 by France's Xavier Malisse.

Cilic also suffered a shock defeat with Michael Llodra of France prevailing 7-6 6-2, while Feliciano Lopez dispatched Julien Benneteau 6-2 6-4 to set up a last-eight tie with Nadal.