The Hindu : Sport / Tennis : Robin Soderling enters fourth round

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Robin Soderling enters fourth round

Serena Williams remains on course; Li Na has it easy against Rodionova

LONDON: Swedish sixth seed Robin Soderling booked his place in the Wimbledon fourth round with a straight-set win over Thomaz Bellucci of Brazil on Friday.

Soderling, who reached the French Open final for the second time earlier this month, won 6-4, 6-2, 7-5 in an hour and 54 minutes on Court One.

Soderling had two match points on the 25th seed's serve and won it when the Brazilian No. 1 fired long.

The Swede faces Spanish ninth seed David Ferrer in the round of 16.

“It's been really good so far, I think I'm serving well and I'm hitting the ball really well,” Soderling said.

“I was a little bit lucky to get away with this one in straight sets.

“I'm definitely having more confidence. I've played really well the last year and a half.

“Confidence is a big thing and I think what helped me most is that I'm playing well in the really important moments.”

Defending women's champion Serena Williams remains on course to successfully defend her title after moving into the fourth round with a 6-0, 7-5 win over Dominika Cibulkova, while officials start to probe the Victor Hanescu spitting row.

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 No. 46 Cibulkova in the third round.

The American, who has lifted the Venus Rosewater dish awarded to the women's champion three times, clearly has no intention of expending unnecessary energy here — with her victory over Anna Chakvetadze in the second round taking just 49 minutes.

Good show

Serena continued that trend as she won the first set without dropping a game for the third successive match before closing out the tie by breaking in the 12th game of the second set.

That was a far more sedate encounter than Romanian 31st seed Hanescu's meeting with Daniel Brands.

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.

Hanescu then appeared to deliberately foot-fault and double-fault before retiring from the match, citing a leg injury. Four spectators were also arrested during the match but it is uncertain if they were involved in the row.

Murray, who reached the semifinals here last year, has yet to drop a set and demolished Jarkko Nieminen in front of Queen Elizabeth II on Thursday, although the Australian Open finalist could face a sterner test from Simon.

Azarenka loses

There was an early surprise on Saturday when women's 14th seed Victoria Azarenka was beaten 7-5, 6-0 in the third round by World No. 62 Petra Kvitova. Chinese ninth seed Li Na was never in danger of following Azarenka out as she routed Australia's Anastasia Rodionova 6-1, 6-3.

Also through to the last 16 was Polish seventh seed Agnieszka Radwanska, who defeated Sara Errani, the Italian 32nd seed, 6-3, 6-1. — Agencies

Men: Third round: 15-LleytonHewitt bt 21-Gael Monfils 6-3, 7-6(9), 6-4; Lu Yen-Hsun bt Florian Mayer 6-4, 6-4, 2-1 retd; 16-Jurgen Melzer bt 22-Feliciano Lopez 4-6, 6-3, 6-2, 6-4; 1-Roger Federer bt Arnaud Clement 6-2, 6-4, 6-2.

Second: round: Paul-Henri Mathieu bt 13-Mikhail Youzhny 6-4, 2-6, 2-6, 6-3, 6-4.

Doubles: Second round: Mahesh Bhupathi & Max Miryni bt Jamie Delgado & Joshua Goodal 6-3, 6-4, 6-4; Lukas Lacko & Sergiy Stakhovsky bt Lukas Dlouhy & Leander Paes 6-3, 6-3, 5-7, 4-6, 7-5; Philipp Marx & Igor Zelenay bt Rohan Bopanna & Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi 7-6(6), 4-6, 4-6, 6-4, 11-13.

Women: Third round: Petra Kvitova bt Victoria Azarenka 7-5, 6-0; 7-Agnieszka Radwanska bt 32-Sara Errani 6-3, 6-1; 1-Serena Williams bt Dominika Cibulkova 6-0, 7-5; 9-Li Na bt Anastasia Rodionova 6-1, 6-3.

2-Venus Williams bt 26-Alisa Kleybanova 6-4, 6-2; Jarmila Groth bt Angelique Kerber 6-3, 7-5.

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