LONDON: Serena Williams earned a decent day’s rest on the middle Sunday at Wimbledon as Jo-Wilfried Tsonga had to work overtime — 19-17 in the fifth set — in another marathon involving John Isner.

Serena, the defending women’s champion and six-time winner, overwhelmed Annika Beck 6-3, 6-0 in just 51 minutes on Centre Court early on Sunday afternoon, advancing to the fourth round with her 300th career Grand Slam match win.

The 34-year-old American compiled 25 winners and seven aces and goes on to face long-time Russian rival Svetlana Kuznetsova, who came from behind to beat No 22 Sloane Stephens 6-7 (1-7), 6-2, 8-6 to reach the fourth round at Wimbledon for the first time since 2008.

“I thought it was good. I still want to get out to a little bit of a faster start but I was really focused and calm,” said Serena, who is just six wins short of Martina Navratilova’s Open era record of 306 Slam wins.

For only the fourth time in Wimbledon’s 139-year history, play was scheduled on the middle Sunday, which is the traditional rest day, because of rain delays in the first week that caused a backlog of matches.

All 22,000 tickets were snapped up in 27 minutes when they went on sale online on Saturday.

After falling an early break behind at 2-1, Serena won 11 of the last 12 games and 24 of the second set’s 28 points.

While Serena played just 15 games in under an hour, Tsonga and Isner needed 44 games and 2 hours, 33 minutes to complete the final two sets of their suspended third-round match.

The final set featured 36 games and lasted 2 hours, 8 minutes.

“It’s good to be alive,” said Tsonga, who saved a match point at 16-15 in the fifth before overcoming the American 6-7 (3-7), 3-6, 7-6 (7-5), 6-2, 19-17.

Isner led two sets to one when play suspended because of darkness on Saturday. The match lasted a total of 4 hours, 24 minutes on Court 2.

That’s still modest compared to Isner’s win over France’s Nicolas Mahut six years ago. He prevailed 70-68 in the final set of the longest match in tennis history, which lasted more than 11 hours over three days in the first round.

Tsonga, a Frenchman seeded 12th, got the only break of Sunday’s fifth set to go ahead 18-17. He then served out the match at 15, hitting a running backhand cross-court volley into the open court to close it out.

He hopped up and down and swung both arms in celebration as the crowd erupted.

Tsonga goes on to face fellow Frenchman Richard Gasquet, who downed Albert Ramos-Vinolas of Spain, 2-6, 7-6 (7-5), 6-2, 6-3.

Another Frenchman, No. 32 Lucas Pouille, ended the Grand Slam comeback of Juan Martin del Potro, beating the Argentine 6-7 (4-7), 7-6 (8-6), 7-5, 6-1.

The 22-year-old Pouille had never won a tour-level match on grass until this tournament. Del Potro was making his first appearance at Wimbledon since 2013 after a series of surgeries on his left wrist.

Nick Kyrgios, the Australian 15th seed, booked a last-16 clash with world number two Andy Murray after beating Feliciano Lopez 6-3, 6-7 (2-7), 6-3, 6-4 in another tie held over from Saturday at one set all.

Murray, the 2013 champion, is the top seed left in the draw after world number one Novak Djokovic was knocked out by Sam Querrey on Saturday.

“I definitely have the tools to do it, but saying that, he’s probably one of the best players in the world and he’s probably the favourite at the moment since Novak is out,” Kyrgios said.

Russian 21st seed Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova made the last 16 of a Slam for the first time since the 2011 US Open by seeing off Swiss 11th seed Timea Bacsinszky 6-3, 6-2.

Pavlyuchenkova will face US 27th seed Coco Vandeweghe, who knocked out sixth-seeded Italian Roberta Vinci 6-3, 6-4.

Vandeweghe is one of the in-form players on grass this year, winning at ‘s-Hertogenbosch and making the semi-finals in Birmingham.

Russia’s Elena Vesnina made the fourth round for the first time in seven years by ending the run of US qualifier Julia Boserup, the world number 225, in straight sets, 7-5, 7-5.

Vesnina will face doubles partner and close friend Ekaterina Makarova, who was a bridesmaid at her wedding last year, for a spot in the quarter-finals.

Results (prefix number denotes seeding):

Men’s singles:

Third round: Jiri Vesely (Czech Republic) bt 31-Joao Sousa (Portugal) 6-2, 6-2, 7-5; 10-Tomas Berdych (Czech Republic) bt 24-Alexander Zverev (Germany) 6-3, 6-4, 4-6, 6-1; 12-Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (France) bt 18-John Isner (US) 6-7 (3-7), 3-6, 7-6 (7-5), 6-2, 19-17; 15-Nick Kyrgios (Australia) bt 22-Feliciano Lopez (Spain) 6-3, 6-7 (2-7), 6-3, 6-4; 7-Richard Gasquet (France) bt Albert Ramos (Spain) 2-6, 7-6 (7-5), 6-2, 6-3; 32-Lucas Pouille (France) bt Juan Martin Del Potro (Argentina) 6-7 (4-7), 7-6 (8-6), 7-5, 6-1.

Women’s singles:

Third round: Ekaterina Makarova (Russia) bt 24-Barbora Strycova (Czech Republic) 6-4, 6-2; 13-Svetlana Kuznetsova (Russia) bt 18-Sloane Stephens (US) 6-7 (1-7), 6-2, 8-6; 1-Serena Williams (US) bt Annika Beck (Germany) 6-3, 6-0; Elena Vesnina (Russia) bt Julia Boserup (US) 7-5, 7-5; 21-Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova (Russia) bt 11-Timea Bacsinszky (Switzerland) 6-3, 6-2; 27-CoCo Vandeweghe (US) bt 6-Roberta Vinci (Italy) 6-3, 6-4.

Saturday’s remaining results:

Men’s singles:

Third round 3 6-Milos Raonic (Canada) bt 27-Jack Sock (US) 7-6 (7-2), 6-4, 7-6 (7-1); 11-David Goffin (Belgium) bt Denis Istomin (Uzbekistan) 6-4, 6-3, 2-6, 6-1; 19-Bernard Tomic (Australia) bt 14-Roberto Bautista (Spain) 6-2, 6-4, 6-4; 2-Andy Murray (Britain) bt John Millman (Australia) 6-3, 7-5, 6-2; Steve Johnson (US) bt Grigor Dimitrov (Bulgaria) 6-7 (6-8), 7-6 (7-3), 6-4, 6-2.

Women’s singles:

Third round: 3-Agnieszka Radwanska (Poland) bt Katerina Siniakova (Czech Republic) 6-3, 6-1; 9-Madison Keys (US) bt Alize Cornet (France) 6-4, 5-7, 6-2; 19-Dominika Cibulkova (Slovakia) bt Eugenie Bouchard (Canada) 6-4, 6-3; 28-Lucie Safarova (Czech Republic) bt Jana Cepelova (Slovakia) 4-6, 6-1, 12-10; Yaroslava Shvedova (Kazakhstan) bt Sabine Lisicki (Germany) 7-6 (7-2), 6-1; 4-Angelique Kerber (Germany) bt Carina Witthoeft (Germany) 7-6 (13-11), 6-1 Misaki Doi (Japan) bt Anna-Lena Friedsam (Germany) 7-6 (7-1), 6-3; 5-Simona Halep (Romania) beat 26-Kiki Bertens (Netherlands) 6-4, 6-3.

Second round: Ekaterina Makarova (Russia) bt 10-Petra Kvitova (Czech Republic) 7-5, 7-6 (7-5).

Published in Dawn, July 4th, 2016