World number one Ashleigh Barty booked her maiden place in the fourth round at Wimbledon on Saturday while Serena Williams made the second week for the 16th time.
Barty overwhelmed British wild card Harriet Dart 6-1, 6-1while 37-year-old, seven-time champion Williams produced her most convincingdisplay in dispensing with German Julia Goerges 6-3, 6-4.
Barty, bidding to become the first Australian Wimbledonwomen’s champion since Evonne Goolagong Cawley won her second title in 1980,will play unseeded American Alison Riske for a place in the last eight. She isalso the first Australian woman to make the second week since 2010.
“Incredible it is a first for me (to be in the last16), new territory for me.” Williams reached the fourth round for the 16thtime and goes on to face Spain’s Carla Suarez Navarro for a place in thequarter-finals.
Eleventh seed Williams, who defeated Goerges in last year’ssemi-finals, is bidding to equal Margaret Court’s all-time record of 24 GrandSlam titles.
Two-time champion Petra Kvitova reached the last 16 for thefirst time in five years — the last time she did in 2014 she won her secondtitle.Czech sixth seed Kvitova defeated Poland’s MagdaLinette 6-3, 6-2 and will face either Britain’s Johanna Konta or SloaneStephens of the United States for a place in the quarter-finals.