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IMAGES from Day 7 at Wimbledon on Monday
Champion Roger Federer's pursuit of a record ninth Wimbledon title gathered momentum on Monday as he reached the quarter-finals with a 6-0, 7-5, 6-4 win over Frenchman Adrian Mannarino.
Federer was in blinding form during the first set, which blazed by in 16 minutes, but after the Swiss missed four break points in the opening game of the second set, Mannarino made more of a match of it.
The world number 26 became the first man to reach break points against the 36-year-old at the All England Club this year, but failed to convert any of them as Federer made it to at least the last eight of the grasscourt major for the 16th time.
He will next play either another Frenchman, Gael Monfils, or South African eighth seed Kevin Anderson.
Easy for Serena as she moves into quarter-finals
Seven-time champion Serena Williams prevailed in a Centre Court mothers' meeting on Monday, roaring past Russian qualifier Evgeniya Rodina into the Wimbledon quarter-finals.
The 36-year-old American was untroubled in a 6-2, 6-2 victory -- her 90th singles match win at the All England Club.
Rodina, who like Williams combines a tennis career with motherhood, looked overawed at first as she went 3-0 down.
She steadied herself, though, and even had a break point when Williams served at 4-2, but her chances were few and far between as her opponent continued to charge through a draw blown wide open by an exodus of seeds.
Rodina left the court for a few minutes at the end of the first set but when she returned Williams continued her domination with an early break in the second.
With her easy power Williams looked serene as she cruised to victory to set up a clash with Italy's unseeded Camila Giorgi who beat Ekaterina Makarova.
"I'm a perfectionist, I always find something," the 36-year-old responded when asked about her near-flawless display.
"Today was tougher than the scoreline suggested."
Williams, who missed last year's Wimbledon because of pregnancy, has not lost here since 2014 and has now won 18 consecutive matches on the London lawns.
She is yet to drop a set this year.
Kiki Bertens completed the demolition of Wimbledon's top eight women's seeds with a 6-3, 7-6(1) defeat of Czech Karolina Pliskova to reach the quarter-finals on Monday.
Bertens, the first Dutchwoman to reach the last 16 since
Michaella Krajicek, sister of former men's champion Richard, did so in 2007, followed up her win over Venus Williams in the third round with a display of power and poise.
Pliskova, seeded seven, was the highest-ranked player to reach the fourth round after an extraordinary first week of upsets but her hopes of further progress evaporated on a stiflingly hot Court Two.
The tall Czech answered an early break with one of her own but 20th seed Bertens secured a second break with a superb touch volley to move 5-3 ahead and then held with ease.
Bertens built a 4-1 lead in the second set with Pliskova appearing to lack energy at times -- occasionally making little attempt to chase balls down.
But Pliskova, who reached number one in the rankings after Wimbledon last year, found some fight and capitalised on a loose game by Bertens that allowed her to break back and level the set at 4-4.
When the set drifted to a tiebreak, Bertens quickly found another gear, firing one superb forehand winner down the line.
An ace took her to 4-0 and there was no coming back for Pliskova. At 6-1 Bertens thought she had over-cooked a forehand swing volley but after Pliskova challenged the call the Hawkeye screen showed it had clipped the baseline.
She celebrated and her watching father puffed out his cheeks in relief. Bertens will play either 13th seed Julia Goerges or Croatia's Donna Vekic for a place in the semi-finals.
Ostapenko fights back to enter quarters again
Twelfth seed Jelena Ostapenko came back from 5-2 down to crush Aliaksandra Sasnovich 7-6(4), 6-0 and reach the Wimbledon quarter-finals for the second year running on Monday.
The 21-year-old Latvian former French Open champion looked in trouble with her Belarusian opponent racing into a 5-2 lead after delivering a superb lob.
However, Ostapenko then seemed stung into action by a warning for coaching and reeled off four games to turn the tables, winning the set in 56 minutes.
Sasnovich, who upset eighth seed Petra Kvitova in the opening round, won one more game to send the set into a tiebreak which she lost 7-4 on a double fault.
Ostapenko, who has yet to drop a set in the tournament, clinched the set in 56 minutes then took half that time to win the second as Sasnovich's game deserted her.
Sasnovich, 24, saved four break points in the fourth game of the second set, her last stand, but could not hold.
Ostapenko proved too strong in the end and will be favoured in her quarter-final to beat Dominika Cibulkova, one of a record nine unseeded players to reach the fourth round since the number of seeds was increased to 32 in 2001.
Slovakian Cibulkova ended Su-Wei Hsieh's run after the Taiwanese had upset top seed Simona Halep. Only one of the top 10 women reached the fourth round for the first time in the Open era.
Nishikori outlasts Gulbis to reach first quarter-final
Kei Nishikori overcame elbow trouble in the opening set to win a marathon match 4-6, 7-6(5), 7-6(10), 6-1 against a limping Ernests Gulbis and reach his first Wimbledon quarter-final at the tenth attempt.
Latvian qualifier Gulbis, a former world number 10 also looking for his first quarter-final at Wimbledon, gave as good as he got in a ding-dong battle over three sets before hurting his knee in the third-set tiebreak.
Japanese former world number four Nishikori, seeded 24th, was troubled by his right elbow during the first set which he lost after being broken in the fifth game.
Gulbis, who won the ace count 18-7, beat Nishikori with a chip at the net to give himself two set points and took it on the first.
The next two sets were a battle of attrition with Gulbis moving his opponent from side to side and hitting crosscourt backhand winners, while Nishikori hung in on the rallies.
Nishikori took the second set after going into a 5-1 lead in the tiebreak. A fine chip gave the Japanese a set point at 6-3 but Gulbis rallied with an ace followed by a neat drop shot, before Nishikori sealed it when the Latvian returned long.
The third set tiebreak was more dramatic with Gulbis going off for treatment after slipping and hurting his left knee and coming back on with it heavily bandaged.
The Latvian saved two set points with some strong returns but both players made unforced errors, Gulbis missing a volley and Nishikori serving two double faults before the Japanese finally clinched it 12-10 after almost three and a half hours.
Gulbis, who had won three five-set matches to get to the fourth round including his upset over fourth seed Alexander Zverev, quickly fell 5-0 behind in the fourth set but managed to hold serve in the sixth game after saving a match point.
Nishikori, runner-up at the 2014 US Open, won the Court Two match on the second match point in the following game when Gulbis, now limping badly, hit a return long.
