Serena Williams plans to extend her winning record over Amelie Mauresmo to 10 wins out of 12 when she faces the Frenchwoman in the third round of Wimbledon on Friday and she is looking forward to a good contest.

"She's been struggling a lot this year. So you can only hope that she does well, especially being a past champion here and a past champion in general. It will be a good match," Williams said.

American Williams, seeded six, will be favourite having won four tournaments, including the Sony Ericsson Open in Miami this season, while Mauresmo, who has struggled with illness, injuries and poor form, has dropped to 29th.

The two former champions are preceded on Centre Court by men's top seed Roger Federer, who may have been relieved to see the talented Novak Djokovic, his scheduled semi-final opponent, make an early exit on Wednesday.

Unseeded Frenchman Marc Gicquel stands between Federer and a place in the fourth round on his way to a sixth successive title at the All England Club.

A win for the Swiss world number one could put him in line to meet Lleyton Hewitt, the only other former Wimbledon men's champion left in the tournament.

The Australian, who defeated David Nalbandian in the 2002 Wimbledon final, faces Italian Simone Bolelli who recorded an impressive second round victory over 15th seed Fernando Gonzalez.

Russia's former world number one Marat Safin, who beat Djokovic, plays Italy's Andreas Seppi and 11th seed Tomas Berdych faces a tricky test against Fernando Verdasco of Spain.

Top women's seed Ana Ivanovic plays China's Zheng Jie on Court One.