Serena Williams, Roger Federer advance to quarterfinals

Six-time champion Serena Williams and seven-time champion Roger Federer breezed into the Wimbledon quarterfinals on Monday.

Williams, the women’s No. 1 seed and defending champion, recovered from a fall on the slick grass and the American dominated once the Centre Court roof was closed to eliminate two-time major title winner Svetlana Kuznetsova 7-5, 6-0.

The 34-year-old Williams won 24 of 29 points in the second set and finished with a 43-8 advantage in winners.

Williams slipped during a point while she was being broken to trail 5-4 in the opening set of the fourth-round match. Kuznetsova then served for that set, but Williams broke right back to make it 5-all when play was delayed for nearly 30 minutes while the retractable roof was shut because of rain. After play resumed, Williams reeled off the last eight games against Kuznetsova.

“She has played really well against me in the past and beat me earlier this year so I knew I had to play well to win,” Williams told the BBC after the match. “It was really tricky out there. It wasn’t raining hard but was dewy and on the grass you can fall easily — then you think ‘should I run or not’ and it became more difficult because of that.”

Williams is seeking her seventh Wimbledon title and 22nd Grand Slam trophy overall to match Steffi Graf’s Open era record.

Williams played on the middle Sunday due to rain delays in the first week that caused a backlog, and she will now play on three successive days.

“In order to win a tournament you usually have to play quarterfinals, semifinals and finals back-to-back,” Williams said. “So I thought ‘Serena, you have done this over 70, 80 times,’ so for me it is an easy transition.”

Williams will next face 21st-seeded Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova of Russia, who reached her first quarterfinal at Wimbledon by eliminating No. 27 American Coco Vandeweghe 6-3, 6-3.

Federer moved into his 14th Wimbledon quarterfinals with a 6-2, 6-3, 7-5 victory over American Steve Johnson.

Federer, playing on two days of rest on Centre Court at the All England Club in London, equaled Jimmy Connors’ Open-era record. The No. 3 seed from Switzerland also added to his own mark by making it at least to the quarters at a Grand Slam tournament for the 48th time.

The 34-year-old Federer has not dropped a set through four matches. Johnson, 26, was making his debut in the fourth round of a major.

“I would never have thought I would win the first four rounds in straight sets,” Federer told the BBC after the match. “The matches may be tough, but rests are great for professional athletes — that’s huge.

“You can always lose a tournament in the first week, but never win it.”

Federer will next face No. 9 Marin Cilic of Croatia, the 2014 U.S. Open champion who advanced when fifth-seeded Kei Nishikori of Japan retired from their fourth-round match. Cilic was leading 6-1, 5-1 when Nishikori, who previously had a rib injury, decided to stop the match.

“I now need to play my best tennis. I have Marin Cilic in the next round — he brushed me off the court in the U.S. Open a few years ago and I hope to get him back,” Federer said.

American Sam Querrey, fresh from shocking world No. 1 Novak Djokovic in the third round on Saturday, also advanced to the quarterfinals.

The 28th-seeded Querrey beat Nicolas Mahut of France 6-4, 7-6 (5), 6-4. Querrey is the first American man to reach the Wimbledon quarterfinals since Mardy Fish in 2011.

On the women’s side, third-seeded Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland was upset by No. 19 Dominika Cibulkova of Slovakia 6-3, 5-7, 9-7 in the fourth round.

Australian Open champion Angelique Kerber of Germany, the No. 4 seed, advanced to the quarterfinals by beating Misaki Doi of Japan 6-3, 6-1.