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Women added: “This year is a big year for me because I’ll be playing in the Olympics, which has been a dream of mine since I was a young girl. Growing up in Russia, tennis wasn’t a big sport back then. It was all about being an Olympian, especially the winter sports. Fortunately we’ve been able to change that a little bit and tennis has become extremely popular back in Russia. This year to have a long grass-court season will be fun.”

Thirteen-time grand slam champion Serena Williams was pushed a little harder, especially in the second set, before progressing courtesy of a 6-0 6-4 defeat of Barbora Zahlavova Strycova. It was the 30-year-old’s 500th career victory – a milestone of which she was justifiably proud.

Women said: “It’s great. It’s the ultimate. It’s really, really cool. 500 is a lot of matches to play, let alone to win. The target is just to keep going. I never even thought about 500 till I got to Australia and realised after Brisbane I was at 498. I knew I was going to get to 500 sooner or later. Now I don’t know what the next milestone is.”

Williams’ scheduled fourth-round opponent is Vera Zvonareva and the seventh seed moved a step closer to that clash with a 6-1 7-6 (7/3) victory over Lucie Hradecka. Kaia Kanepi, the 25th seed from Estonia, is out after losing 6-2 7-5 to Ekaterina Makarova, but former world number one Ana Ivanovic progressed thanks to a 6-2 6-3 win over Michaella Krajicek.