TENNIS in DEPTH.

The Swede, a quarter-finalist in 2010, appeared to be suffering from dizziness as he lost the opener in 17 minutes. Tomic, 18, kept firing groundstrokes as he secured the solitary break in the fifth game of the second set. The upset was complete when the qualifier broke late on in the third before holding his nerve to serve out.

“I had to play very well to win,” said Tomic in the wake of his victory. ”It is probably the greatest achievement of my career so far, I’m really happy. ”I looked very calm but inside I was bursting. I could see he was getting frustrated and I knew I just had to stay calm.” Tomic, whose best previous run in a Grand Slam ended in a third-round defeat to world number one Rafael Nadal at the 2011 Australian Open, will play either Jurgen Melzer or Xavier Malisse in the last 16.

Tomic began the tournament 153 ranking places adrift of Soderling, but the gap is certain to close after a crowd-pleasing win on Court One.

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After being taken to three sets on Court Two in the previous round, Williams looked more at home with a powerful performance on Court One. A break in the opening game was enough to take the first set, before Kirilenko surrendered her serve again in the third and fifth games of the second.

“I feel like I keep improving,” she said. ”It is just getting the rhythm that I have been missing a little bit and its getting better. ”I just want to keep serving better, as I did today, and just hold on out there, keep moving and enjoy myself.”

The American will play ninth seed Marion Bartoli in the fourth round. Bartoli won a long edurance match against Flavia Pennetta 10-8 in the third set.

Ana Ivanovic suffered a desperately disappointing 6-2, 7-6 defeat to world No.81 Petra Cetkovska in the third round. The 23-year-old was a shadow of the player she had been in the opening two rounds and struggled to return the pinpoint serve of the Czech. Ana began the match as the overwhelming favourite. In fact, she had triumphed 6-0, 6-0 in their only previous meeting, at the 2008 French Open. However, the 17th seed was simply not on form and fell a break behind early on.

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Rafael Nadal survived some hairy moments to see off the challenge of Gilles Muller and progress into the second week of Wimbledon. The defending champion, facing the man who sent him packing from SW19 in 2005, could easily have lost the first two sets on tie-breaks as Muller went close to playing – or at least serving – him off Court One. But Nadal came through both of them, one before the rain that called time on the match on Friday evening and one on Saturday, to move into the fourth round with a 7-6 (8/6) 7-6 (7/5) 6-0 victory. However, the Mallorcan will spend his day off on Sunday knowing he was in a real battle with the world number 96 from Luxembourg, and, had he not saved two set points in the first set, things may well have turned out differently. Having taken the tensest of openers on Friday night, Nadal left the court for treatment following a tumble but did not return until today as the weather intervened and forced play to be cancelled at 7pm. He showed no obvious signs of discomfort as he returned to the court, but if his body was not troubling him then Muller certainly was.

Monfils was sent crashing out of Wimbledon, beaten 6-3 3-6 6-3 6-3 by Poland’s Lukasz Kubot. Their match resumed on Court Three at one set all and 3-3 on Saturday after being bit by bad weather on Friday. Tomas Berdych, last year’s beaten Wimbledon finalist, cruised into the fourth round with an easy win over Alex Bogomolov Jr. The sixth seed from the Czech Republic saw off his American opponent 6-2 6-4 6-3 on Court 18. Berdych, 25, beat six-time champion Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic at the All England Club in 2010 before losing to eventual champion Rafael Nadal. In the fourth round, he will face another American, 10th seed Mardy Fish. Fish progressed after third round opponent Robin Haase of the Netherlands retired with an injury, with the score at 6-3 6-7 (5-7) 6-2 1-1.

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Caroline Wozniacki produced a near-faultless performance as she eased into the fourth round with a 6-3 6-2 victory over Australia’s Jarmila Gajdosova. Wozniacki, the world number one who is in pursuit of her maiden grand slam title, broke Gajdosova once in the first set and twice in the second to complete a routine win on Centre Court. The Danish 20-year-old made just five unforced errors in the match and will now face Dominika Cibulkova, who advanced with a three-set victory over 16th seed Julia Goerges. Competing in a women’s draw which features multiple grand slam champions such as Maria Sharapova and the Williams sisters, Wozniacki still has much to prove. She is constantly being asked whether she can justify being world number one without having transferred her consistency from the WTA Tour – where she has won five titles this year – to the grand slam stage. But Wozniacki is going about her business at Wimbledon in solid fashion.

Maria Sharapova raced through to the fourth round at Wimbledon with a crushing win over Klara Zakopalova on Saturday. The fifth seed and title favourite had laboured to victory over Britain’s Laura Robson on Friday, when she was taken to a tie-break in the opening set and then proved unconvincing as she looked to close out the match. But aside from a blip early in the second set and 21 unforced errors, 24-year-old Sharapova was considerably sharper 24 hours later and had little trouble putting away her Czech opponent on Court Two in 78 minutes, which has been at the centre of the scheduling controversy at this year’s tournament. Unlike defending champion Serena Williams, who voiced concern that she was asked to play there while the leading men stayed on Centre and Court One, Sharapova looked to be in her comfort zone inside the 4,000-seat arena. She won 6-2 6-3, which was routine apart from when she slipped a break shortly after tying up the opening set.

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Much was made of the fact that Ljubicic has never played on Centre Court, mainly due to never having been past the third round at Wimbledon. He took the court today clearly resolved to make the most of this opportunity. Murray started well, hitting six aces in the first four games, but after failing to convert four break points on Ljubicic’s serve, he played a woeful service game to be broken himself for 4-3. Although Murray would break back immediately and take the set with some textbook corner-to-corner hitting, the British No. 1 looked far from happy with himself, slapping his thigh and punching his racquet; he was as dark and stormy in his behavior as the weather was damp and disheartening. That’s classic Andy Murray, too.

Ljubicic was the soul of calm, responding to Murray’s alternately electrifying and appalling play with the same expressionless demeanor. He came into the match with a clear plan to attack Murray’s weak second serve and temperamental forehand as often as possible, and a low first-serve percentage throughout the match from Murray played right into the Croat’s hands. After breaking in the second, Ljubicic used his own fearsome serve to finish the set, consistently making it into the net to end the point on his own terms, rather than allowing Murray to extract the error. Perhaps unlucky to be broken in the third set—Ljubicic chose to volley a ball that looked like it was going wide, and missed—the 33-year-old seemed to run out of steam as Murray got better, cruising to a 6-1 win and breaking early in the fourth. Despite missing too many first serves and the occasional errant forehand, Murray was playing so well that on Ljubicic’s serve at 2-4, he hit the under-the-leg volley winner he debuted at Queens; exhibition tennis.

Still, Ljubicic proved the maxim that no player should take his eye off the ultimate objective for even a moment, when he hit a great return to set up break points as Murray served for the match. Murray erred in failing to challenge an overrule by umpire Jake Garner, but it was a casual game and the Scot was justly punished with a break of serve. Taken to a tiebreak, it was a quintessential Murray point that finally put him ahead; fantastic anticipation and hands landed a lucky, deep return right on the baseline to get him into a rally which eventually drew an error from Ljubicic. He took the match with a forehand winner and a rare, relieved smile.

Hardly the serene progress that one might hope for from the fourth seed, but with all the challenges ahead in Murray’s draw—he faces Richard Gasquet next, who shares a coach with Ljubicic—it may be as well to get match-tough and do it early. Despite Ljubicic’s great play, Murray left himself vulnerable, and being forced to dig deep and outlast an opponent may not be the best way to get through a third-round match. But it’s classic Andy Murray—and it’s definitely better than the alternative.

Courtesy of Hannah Wilks

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The match was tied at one set all and with Hantuchova serving at 2-1 down when the rain came, forcing the players off court while the roof was closed. When play resumed, Azarenka was clearly fired up and pounced on Hantuchova’s serve to claim what proved to be the decisive break. Azarenka, the highest-ever ranked Belarusian woman, won 6-3 3-6 6-2 and will meet Nadia Petrova in the fourth round. ”(The rain break) probably was to my advantage but I am actually really glad I stayed so composed, I went out there very motivated and focused. That was important,” said Azarenka. ”Daniela is in big form right now and it was a tough battle. We had a lot of great rallies and she serves big so I had to stay tough, keep fighting and take the first chance I got.”

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Bulgarian Pironkova was the surprise package in last year’s tournament, reaching the semi-finals where she was knocked out by Russian Zvonareva. But the 32nd seed avenged that defeat as Zvonareva’s game crumbled on Court Two, with 18 unforced errors.

Five-time Wimbledon champion Williams was in equally impressive form, sweeping aside Spain’s Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez 6-0 6-2, setting up a fourth-round tie against Pironkova.

Ninth seed Marion Bartoli survived three match points to beat Lourdes Dominguez Lino 4-6 7-5 6-2. The unseeded Spaniard, ranked 48th in the world, served for the match at 5-4 in the second set but Bartoli, who lost to Venus Williams in the 2007 Wimbledon final, displayed impressive resilience to level the match and break her opponent’s serve in the next game before levelling. And she sealed victory with a commanding performance in the final set to set up a third-round match against Italy’s 21st seed Flavia Pennetta.

In the third round, former French and US Open champion Svetlana Kuznetsova, the 12th seed, suffered a 4-6 6-3 6-4 defeat by Belgium’s 19th seed Carolina Wickmayer. Former world number three Nadia Petrova, unseeded at SW19, also advanced into the next round following a 6-3 6-2 win over Kateryna Bondarenko.

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