Williams is yet to drop a set in the first three matches of her title-defence and she was far too strong for world number 46 Cibulkova. She won the first set in just 18 minutes, and moved on to the second set where Cibulkova gradually found a little more confidence and began to at least make Serena break a sweat.
The Slovakian fended off match point as she held serve for 5-5. But Williams was never likely to be held up for long and she broke in the 12th game to seal her path into the second week of the tournament.
The top-seeds continued the thrashing with ninth-seed David Ferrer beating Jeremy Chardy 7-5, 6-3, 4-6, 3-6, 7-5 and third-seed Caroline Wozniacki overpowering Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 7-5, 6-4.
The Russian Maria Sharapova overcame Czech Republic’s Barbora Strycova 7-5, 6-3.
Federer gets his groove
Defending champion Roger Federer swept into the fourth round with a 6-2, 6-4, 6-2 win over France’s Arnaud Clement. Unlike the previous two matches, the Swiss top seed gave a sublime display to set up a clash with Austrian 16th-seed Jurgen Melzer at the start of next week.
Three-time Wimbledon runner-up Andy Roddick secured a 7-5, 6-7 (5/7), 6-3, 6-3 win against Germany’s Philipp Kohlschreiber, while the Swedish sixth-seed Robin Soderling claimed a straight-sets win over Thomaz Bellucci of Brazil.
Published in The Express Tribune, June 27th, 2010.
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