Wimbledon Day 6: Serena into Week 2

Serena Williams is into the second week of a major for a record 60th time in her career—and 16th time at Wimbledon—after a 6-3, 6-4, third-round win over No. 18 seed Julia Goerges of Germany at the All England Club.

Williams, 37, finally looked more like the 23-time major singles champion that she is on Saturday, dominating play and winning convincingly, compared to her first two matches of the tournament, in which she struggled against two qualifiers ranked no higher than No. 133 in the WTA rankings.

On Saturday, the 11th-seeded Williams put 71 percent of her first serves in play, hit seven aces and did not allow a break point to Goerges. The seven-time Wimbledon champion had 19 winners and 15 unforced errors, compared to 13 and 8 for Goerges, and she won 64 of the 115 total points played in the one-hour, 12-minute match.

“I just need to keep it up,” Williams said in her post-match press conference. “Each match for me really counts. I haven't had a tremendous amount. Literally each match counts for me. It's just keep going, doing what I'm doing in practice hopefully.”

Williams has played a limited number of tournaments this year because of a knee problem and, entering Wimbledon, had compiled a 9-3 record on the year. Heading into the year’s third Grand Slam, she had completed only two tournaments—the Australian Open and the French Open—and she had either withdrawn or retired in the other tournaments she had entered because of her injury.

With her win Saturday, Williams improves to 5-0 lifetime against Goerges. She next faces No. 30 Carla Suarez Navarro, who advanced Saturday with a 6-3, 6-3 win over American Lauren Davis.

Also on Day 6, Alison Riske moved into the Wimbledon fourth round for the first time in her career, upsetting No. 13 seed Belinda Bencic, 4-6, 6-4, 6-4, in her third three-set match of the tournament. With the win, Riske, a 29-year-old native of Pittsburgh, sets up a Round-of-16 meeting with top-seed and world No. 1 Ashleigh Barty.

On the men’s side, Sam Querrey and Tennys Sandgren each won their third-round matches and will square off in an all-American fourth-round battle on Monday at the All England Club.

Querrey, a semifinalist at Wimbledon in 2017, advanced by defeating Australian John Millman, 7-6 (3), 7-6 (8), 6-3, and moves on to the Wimbledon fourth round for the fourth time in his career.

Sandgren upset Italian No. 12 seed Fabio Fognini, 6-3, 7-6 (12), 6-3, and will play in the Wimbledon Round of 16 for the first time.

In other singles matches on Day 6, Sloane Stephens fell to No. 19 seed Johanna Konta, 3-6, 6-4, 6-1, and Steve Johnson lost to No. 8 Kei Nishikori, 6-4, 6-3, 6-2.

Doubles action also continued Saturday, with Bob and Mike Bryan among the winners in men’s doubles, and Danielle Collins and Bethanie Mattek-Sands teaming to advance in women's doubles. Williams returned to the court to play mixed doubles with Andy Murray, and the all-star duo defeated Alexa Guarachi of Chile and Andreas Mies of Germany, 6-4, 6-1, in their first-round match.

Junior play also kicked off, with wins from No. 4 seed Martin Damm and Govind Nanda in the boys’ draw, and No. 1 seed Emma Navarra and Abigail Forbes on the girls’ side.

After an off day at the All England Club on Sunday, play resumes on Monday, with the five remaining American singles players in action, including 15-year-old Cori "Coco" Gauff, who will continue her fairytale Wimbledon debut against former world No. 1 Simona Halep.