Confidence building performances

The two players who are destined to lift this year's title - that is in the eyes of the pundits - remain on course for a final day showdown.

Serena Williams, the 30 year-old four time champion who overflows with confidence whether she wins or loses, certainly showed that she is a contender as she was rarely tested in her second round outing against Melinda Czink.

Wasting little time and energy she powered her way past the Hungarian 6-1 6-4 enjoying to the full the fact that she was back on Centre Court rather than banished to Court No2, as she was in her opening match.

She struck seven aces during the 19 -minute first set and while Czink raised her own game in the second, she was unable to deter the steamroller which is Williams junior, from her destiny, namely, reaching the third round and a meeting with Jie Zheng of China.

Having shown a bit of rustiness in her opening match, Serena felt her performance was improving. "Serving‑wise it was definitely better," she said, "more consistent.  So it's something to be happy about."

She also shrugged off any suggestions that she was under pressure but agreed that while she might not looked relaxed, she was in good shape physically. "I feel really good, but I'm just always wanting to be so perfect that sometimes I want to do too much.  That's something I'm still working on."

Meanwhile, top seed Maria Sharapova resumed her match against Tsvetana Pironkova from a position of strength. The Russian world number one resumed leading the Bulgarian by a set and a break only to find herself in trouble as Pironkova's power forced the match  into a decider only to crumble to allow Sharapova to sweep through to the third round 7-6(3) 6-7(3) 6-0.

Having survived the 25 year-old admitted:  "I started too slow today and she came out firing."

Pironkova, a former Wimbledon semi-finalist, had the match by the scruff of the neck only to collapse in the third to the surprise of everyone except Sharapova, who grasped the opportunity to break her opponent's spirit and race into the last 32 to face Taipe's Su-Wei Hsieh.

The change of fortune in that third set elicited the question as to what particular change had she made. "Nothing specific," came the reply. "We were playing with the same balls.  I played with the same racket.  I think it was just telling myself to ‑‑ well, I mean, I started doing things a little bit better.

"Like I said, I felt like everything was a little bit slow [at the restart].  I wasn't moving up to the ball.  She hit a few short balls.  I made errors.  I let her play.  I didn't feel like there was enough pace on my ball.  I guess [I started doing]those things that I usually do."

But Sharapova was quick to point out that Pironkova was no pushover. "She has the perfect game for grass.  She always does really well against top players and really rises for the occasion."

This time she fell away in that crucial decider