Russian former Wimbledon champion Maria Sharapova was made to work as she downed Barbora Zahlavova Strycova in straight sets to reach the fourth round on Saturday.
Sharapova booked a fourth round clash with title holder Serena Williams by beating the Czech number five 7-5, 6-3 in an hour and 54 minutes on Court One.
Meanwhile, defending champion Serena Williams remained on course to successfully defend her title with a 6-0, 7-5 win over Dominika Cibulkova.
Serena had lost just five games in the first two rounds at the All England Club and she gave another dominant display against Slovakian world number 46 Cibulkova in the third round.
Elsewhere in the Championships, men’s ninth seed David Ferrer of Spain beat Frenchman Jeremy Chardy in five sets to earn a meeting with Swedish sixth seed Robin Soderling.
In the women’s singles, Italian 10th seed Flavia Pennetta lost 6-2, 6-3 to Klara Zakopalova. The 14th seed Victoria Azarenka was beaten 7-5, 6-0 by world number 62 Petra Kvitova.
Chinese ninth seed Li Na was never in danger of following those seeds out as she routed Australia’s Anastasia Rodionova 6-1, 6-3.
Also through to the last 16 were Danish third seed Caroline Wozniacki, who beat Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 7-5, 6-4 and Polish seventh seed Agnieszka Radwanska, who defeated Sara Errani.
Hanescu fined
Hanescu allegedly spat at the crowd before quitting his third round men’s singles match.
He had blown a two-set lead and fell behind in the deciding set before the spitting incident, which reportedly followed heckling by fans on Court 18.
On Saturday he discovered he has been punished with a $7,500 fine for unsportsmanlike conduct and the same total for “not using best efforts”. —AFP