Roger Federer reached the last-32 of a Grand Slam for the 70th time on Thursday when he defeated British wild card Jay Clarke 6-1, 7-6 (7/3), 6-2 in the second round at Wimbledon.
The eight-time Wimbledon champion, who is chasing a 21st major crown, unleashed 46 winners past the battling world number 169.
"I struggled to take care of business a bit from the baseline," said 37-year-old Federer after equalling Jimmy Connors' record of making the Wimbledon third round on 17 occasions.
"Thankfully I played a pretty good breaker, I had some help from him as he gave me a couple of unforced errors.
"The tank is full. I came here with a lot of confidence, the first few matches haven't been very taxing physically.
"This first week has been going well and I know the opponents in terms of ranking will now get better."
Federer will face either Lucas Pouille, the 27th seed, or qualifier Gregoire Barrere for a place in the last 16.
Kerber knocked out
Angelique Kerber's defence of her singles title came to an early end at Wimbledon being knocked out in the second round by lucky loser Lauren Davis 2-6, 6-2, 6-1.
The 31-year-old German, who came into the tournament in form having reached the final at Eastbourne, made her earliest exit since losing in the same round in 2013.
Davis has now equalled her best previous performance at Wimbledon in reaching the third round where she will play Spanish 30th seed Carla Suarez Navarro for a place in the last 16.
Barty hurries into third round
Top seed Ash Barty hurried into the Wimbledon third round on Thursday, dispatching Alison van Uytvanck 6-1 6-3 in 54 minutes on the All England Club's distant showcourt Two.
Barty is the woman of the moment having just won her first Grand Slam at the French Open but she and former Wimbledon champion Angelique Kerber were consigned to Court Two for their second-round matches while much lower ranked Britons were scheduled to play on Centre Court.
Australia’s Ashleigh Barty celebrates her victory on day 4 of the Wimbledon 2019 tennis championship in London on July 4, 2019. | Photo Credit: AP
But the court did not affect the 23-year-old Australian's tennis. She sprayed winners, including two delicious lobs, and did not allow Van Uytvanck into the match until the sixth game of the first set.
Barty took the first set with a backhand that wrong-footed her opponent and wrapped up the match, played in warm sunshine, with a high backhand volley winner.
Van Uytvanck is no slouch on grass. The Belgian reached the last 16 here last year, upsetting defending champion Garbine Muguruza on the way, and she has a powerful swinging serve.
“I had to have my running shoes on,” Barty said as she came off court. “I had to make sure I made a lot of returns.”
Kvitova reaches third round
Petra Kvitova's decision to give her shoes an almighty whack with her racket turned out to be a masterstroke as the Czech's legs finally started to move more freely, and she eked out a 7-5 6-2 win over Kristina Mladenovic at Wimbledon on Thursday.
The sixth seed did not exactly enjoy the most promising of starts — she was broken in the opening game and fell 5-3 behind when she squandered three break points in the eighth game.
She took out her frustrations on her personalised shoes, giving one of them such a powerful blow with her racket frame that it briefly left her grimacing — and that proved to be Frenchwoman Mladenovic's undoing.
Two games later, Kvitova saved three set points to level for 5-5 and it was a setback Mladenovic could not recover from.
The 2011 and 2014 champion, who was still sporting a bandage around her left elbow after missing the French Open with an arm injury, was swinging more freely from then on as she won 10 of the last 12 games to book a place in the third round for the first time since 2015.
Kvitova will next face either Poland's Magda Linette or 17-year-old American Amanda Anisimova.
Stephens, Johnson win
Sloane Stephens and Steve Johnson got American Independence Day underway by booking their places in the third round of Wimbledon.
Stephens, the 2017 U.S. Open champion, was off court in less than an hour after romping to a 6-0 6-2 win over Yafan Wang which took her into round three for the first time since 2016.
Johnson, however, had to toil for almost 3-1/2 hours under a blazing sun before he was able to crawl past Australian 25th seed Alex de Minaur 3-6 7-6(4) 6-3 3-6 6-3.
Next up for him will be Japan's Kei Nishikori.
The duo are among 11 Americans in action on day four of the championships, with seven-times singles champion Serena Williams headlining the 4th of July billing.