Third seed Ons Jabeur once again raced through her latest match at Wimbledon to book a place in the fourth round.
A 6-2 6-3 win over Diane Parry in 68 minutes was the longest amount of time the Tunisian had spent on court at the All England Club this summer but still means she has only played just over three hours in SW19 so far.
Jabeur was in superb touch against her French opponent and showed her full repertoire of tricks on Centre Court with several trademark drop shots able to help her into the last-16.
“It was a great match for me,” the world number two said on court.
“It is tough to play young, talented players like her, especially in a great tournament I love so much, so happy to get it done in two sets and I hope to continue playing this way.”
After racing through her opening two matches with Mirjam Bjorklund and Katarzyna Kawa, a similar pattern emerged in this third-round tie after Jabeur broke three times in the first set.
Parry did eventually get on the board and avoid the bagel with 31 minutes played but a 108mph ace down the middle sealed the opener for the well-backed number three seed.
Teenager Parry had also made the round of 32 at Wimbledon in 2021 and played with more purpose in the second but had no answer to some of Jabeur’s wizardry.
A stunning drop shot after running into the net sealed a key hold and another contributed towards a second break to help the right-hander secure an eighth win in a row on grass.
Jelena Ostapenko was the first player into the fourth round at Wimbledon but she needed three sets to beat Irina Begu.
The 12th seed lost the opener but roared back to win 3-6 6-1 6-1 inside 90 minutes on Court Three.
Jule Niemeier also progressed and in the process ended the run of Ukraine’s Lesia Tsurenko.
In a match where a total of 21 breaks occurred, it was the German who edged through 6-4 3-6 6-3.
Tsurenko, who wore a blue and yellow ribbon in support of Ukraine and will £12,000 of her prize money back to her home country to help with the war, admitted: “A few days like that happened to me feeling nervous with no reason.
“Let’s say, I mean, no reason, no real reason. I know that there is a war at home, and I think it’s just makes me too nervous sometimes. It’s definitely affecting, but probably I was just not able to separate today.”
Niemeier’s opponent for a place in the quarter-finals will be Britain’s Heather Watson after she opened up Court One with a 7-6 (6) 6-2 success over Kaja Juvan.
It sent the home favourite through to the fourth round of a grand slam for the first time.
The 30-year-old had been 5-0 up but was broken when she had the chance to serve for the match before she eventually got the job done.
“It wouldn’t be me if there wasn’t a bit of drama at the end,” Watson said. “It means everything playing here at home in front of you guys.”
