The new avatar of Grand Slam seedings, which sees 32 players allotted favourable draws as against 16 previously tends to ensure that there are fewer upsets in the early rounds of the Slams, especially those where a top 10 player goes missing. The first bout of seed versus seed takes place in the third round, and by then with two matches under their belt, it is very rare for the 'better' player to lose. The big 3 of men's tennis put that theory to the test on Saturday in third round action at Wimbledon, and all of them booked safe passage through to week 2 of Championships, albeit charting considerably different courses.

Defending champion Rafael Nadal first battled, and then clobbered his way past Gilles Muller of Luxembourg to register a 7-6(6), 7-6(5), 6-0 victory. Former champion Roger Federer was much more clinical in his elimination of an old foe in David Nalbandian. However, it was the third member of the holy trinity, Novak Djokovic, who needed to lose his temper (and his racquet) before brushing past Marcus Baghdatis in four sets. There was also a major casualty in the men's draw today as Robin Soderling, of exhausting second round win against Lleyton Hewitt fame, went down to Aussie teenage sensation Bernard Tomic in straight sets. There were also wins on Saturday for 6th seed Tomas Berdych, 2009 US Open Champion Juan Martin del Potro and the popular Frenchman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga.

The Ladies Singles' event at Wimbledon 2011 is down to its last 16 and what is undoubtedly good news for the organizers is that their four biggest title contenders are still very much alive. Top seed Caroline Wozniacki, defending champion Serena Williams and 2004 winner Maria Sharapova led the way into round 4 today, each for the loss of just 5 games. While the big guns were coasting through, there were a couple of genuine slugfests in progress on the oustide courts. 2010 French Open champion Francesca Schiavone lost an amazing match to 20-year Tamira Paszek of Austria 11-9 in the final set, going almost a similar distance was the 2007 Wimbledon runner-up Marion Bartoli, who is fast emerging as a real escape artist around SW19, squeezing past 21st seed Flavia Pennetta 9-7 in the third.

World no.1 Caroline Wozniacki produced an immaculate 65 minutes of tennis in her 6-3, 6-2 drubbing of 27th-seed Jarmila Gajdosova of Australia to march into the second week of Wimbledon. Gajdosova, known for her lusty strokes, tried her best to outhit the 20-year old Dane, but her efforts came to nought against some precise and consistent hitting by the world's top ranked player. Wozniacki gained the upper hand in the match for the first time in the eighth game of the first set, breaking Gajdosova to claim a lead that she held to wrap up the set. She continued in her merry way in the second set as well, breaking her 24-year old opponent twice to seal her third straight-sets victory in a row. Wozniacki now will face the no.24 seed Dominika Cibulkova, who battled past Julia Goerges in a three-setter earlier on Court 3.

Three-time Grand Slam champion and former world number one Maria Sharapova did not have to break much of a sweat as she swept past against 29-year old Czech Klara Zakopalova, winning their third-round match 6-2, 6-3. Sharapova, on the back of a convincing win over Brit Laura Robson in the previous round, looked in control at most times, and even though she hit 5 unforced errors more than Zakopalova, the Russian used her superior forehand and serve to round up the match in an hour and 17 minutes.

Sharapova, seeded fifth at Wimbledon this year, started well, holding her first service game to 30, and then breaking the Czech world number 35 in the second game of the match to gain an early upper hand in the opening set. Zakopalova broke back immediately, but was visibly struggling with her serve, as Sharapova benefitted from a double fault on the third deuce in Zakopalova's next service game before hitting a big backhand up the line to claim another break to distance herself from her opponent. Sharapova, with her powerful hitting, looked in control of the match, making her unseeded opponent do all the running, and eventually picked up the first set 6-2.

In contrast to Thursday which turned out to be a mixed day for the Indians in the 125th edition of the Championships at SW19, Friday brought only cheers for the Indian contingent at Wimbledon. The Indian charge was led by the 3rd seeded pair of Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi as they displayed grit and determination of the highest quality against the Croatian combo of Lovro Zovko and Ivan Dodig.

The 1999 doubles champions edged their unseeded opponents 6-7(7), 6-4, 6-4 in a tough three setter to accomplish a come from behind victory to set up a meeting with Arnaud Clement of France and Lukas Dlouhy of Czech Republic in the next round. Paes and Bhupati's compatriots Sania Mirza and Somdev Devvarman also progressed in their respective events to ensure a perfect day for the Indians.

There was limited action in the Men's draw at Wimbledon on Friday as afternoon rain brought an early end to proceedings on the outside courts. There was though time for joy for one Andy and despair for the other. Fortunately as far as the whole of Britain is concerned, the right one went through to the fourth round, but not without making rather heavy weather of his contest. Andy Murray, continued his incredible record under the roof at Center Court, beating Croatian veteran Ivan Ljubicic in four sets 6-4, 4-6, 6-1, 7-6(4). Not as fortunate was American Andy Roddick. The three time finalist lost to Spaniard Feliciano Lopez 7-6(2), 7-6(2), 6-4. Only one other third round match was able to finish today with Richard Gasquet earning a long awaited Wimbledon rematch with Murray, beating Italian Simone Bolelli in three easy sets.

Andy Murray appeared to be carrying the weight of an entire nation desperate for success as he stumbled through his third round match with Ivan Ljubicic. After some routine early games, the players brought out the heavy artillery midway through the first set as Ljubicic was forced to dig deep to save four break points in a thrilling 6th game. Ljubicic responded by breaking serve in the following game, only to be broken right back as Murray refused to give in. Instead, the young Brit responded by putting Ljubicic under even more pressure in the 10th game and breaking him for a second straight time to wrap up an entertaining opening set 6-4.

After a relatively mild morning session which saw Caroline Wozniacki whisk into the third round and Maria Sharapova battle through too, Friday afternoon provided considerable excitement in the ladies' singles event with some far from expected results. While the most shocking of all was undoubtedly seeing no.2 seed Vera Zvonareva crash out to 32nd ranked Tsvetana Pironkova in straight sets, the dominant nature of Venus Williams' complete annihilation of talented Spaniard Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez was just as astonishing. Petra Kvitova and Victoria Azarenka restored some semblance of order with contrasting wins, but there was another early exit for a seed with the dancing German Andrea Petkovic beaten in straight sets by the unheralded Ksenia Pervak.

Tsvetana Pironkova, a beaten semi-finalist at last year's Wimbledon at the hands of Vera Zvonareva came into their third round clash with revenge on her mind, and did she ever deliver, thumping the Russian 6-2, 6-3 in just 77 minutes. While the scoreline indicates a washout, the first set ultimately came down to who took her chances with the young Bulgarian going 2/2 on break point conversions while her Russian adversary was 0/6. Pironkova tightened things up considerably in the second and remarkably quite literally produced an error free performance as she hammered 10 winners and no unforced errors to book her place in the fourth round.