Third seed Andy Murray's smooth progress at Wimbledon continued with a 6-2 6-3 6-4 victory over Serbia's Viktor Troicki yesterday to reach the last 16.
Under stormy skies and with thunder rumbling in the distance Murray produced a dominant display against the 30th seed, finishing the one-sided third round contest with his 17th ace.
Murray, bidding to become Britain's first men's Wimbledon singles champion since Fred Perry before World War II, appeared in a hurry to get off court as light rain threatened to force the use of the new roof for the first time during a match.
Troicki offered a little more resistance in the third set but Murray was never troubled as he moved through to face Swiss number two Stanislas Wawrinka tomorrow.
Earlier in the day, Jelena Jankovic's challenge melted in soaring temperatures as Serbia's sixth seed was stifled 6-7 7-5 6-2 in the third round by 124th-ranked teenage American qualifier Melanie Oudin on a roasting Court Three.
Blaming her plight on "some woman problems", Jankovic added: "I was like a ghost... I didn't know where I was. I felt really dizzy and I thought that I was gonna end up in hospital. I started to shake. I was losing my consciousness.
"It's not easy being a woman sometimes," she said.
French Open champion Svetlana Kuznetsova joined Jankovic at the exit door. Unseeded German Sabine Lisicki ruined the Russian's 24th birthday celebrations with a 6-2 7-5 win.
Ana Ivanovic and five-times champion Venus Williams faced no such problems.
However, Ivanovic wisely opted not to spend too much time topping up her tan on Court Two as she hurried past Australian Samantha Stosur 7-5 6-2 in just 70 minutes to reach the last 16.
Next up for the 13th seed is world number three Williams.
Ivanovic cannot afford any lapses tomorrow as American Williams chalked up her 17th successive win at the grasscourt major with a 6-0 6-4 walloping of Carla Suarez Navarro.
Lleyton Hewitt might still have found the weather too cold to enjoy an ice cream as he is more used to the 40 degree temperatures in Australia. That did not stop him turning the heat on German Philipp Petzschner with a 7-5 7-6 6-3 victory. He now stands one match away from a potential mouth-watering quarter-final against former finalist Andy Roddick. The American sixth seed sent down 33 thunderbolt aces as he dispatched Austrian Juergen Melzer 7-6 7-6 4-6 6-3.
Another former champion, Frenchwoman Amelie Mauresmo, overcame Italian 15th seed Flavia Pennetta 7-5 6-3.
Germany's Tommy Haas, stranded at 6-6 in the fifth set overnight, needed to toil in the sun for another six games yesterday before completing a 7-5 7-5 1-6 6-7 10-8 win over Croatian Marin Cilic.
Record crowds
While the rest of the world is counting pennies and struggling to find ways to beat the credit crunch, global political leaders could learn a lesson or two from those who run the grasscourt championships as record crowds continue to turn up at this year's tournament.
Over the first five days, 222,832 people had attended the tournament, an increase of 21,446 from 2008.
Other results
Men: Ferrero bt Gonzalez 4-6 7-5 6-4 4-6 6-4; Simon bt Hanescu 6-2 7-5 6-2; Wawrinka bt Levine 5-7 7-5 6-3 6-3; Stepanek bt Ferrer 7-5 7-5 3-6 4-6 6-4; Berdych bt Davydenko 6-2 6-3 6-2; Andreev bt Seppi 6-1 7-6 4-6 7-6.
Women: Radwanska bt Li Na 6-4 7-5; Wozniacki bt Garrigues 6-2 6-2.