Sixth seed Andy Roddick came through another potentially tricky encounter on Friday when his ever reliable serve helped him to a 7-5, 6-7, 6-3, 6-3 victory over Germany's Philipp Kohlschreiber in the third round at Wimbledon.
Roddick, who lost his third final to Roger Federer 12 months ago, retained his focus the better though and sealed victory with another thunderbolt ace after two hours and 56 minutes.
He will face Taiwan's Lu Yen-Hsun for a place in the quarter-finals.
Roger Federer finally rediscovered some of the graceful touches that has helped him to six Wimbledon titles as he eased past Arnaud Clement 6-2, 6-4, 6-2 in another third round clash.
After two decidedly un-Federer-like performances so far this campaign the Swiss maestro hit the ground running from the off against a man who had beaten him in both their previous Grand Slam meetings.
Federer broke the French world number 86 in the opening game and reeled off the first two sets in little over an hour, and settled it after 95 minutes when the Frenchman netted.
He will play Austrian 16th seed Jurgen Melzer for a place in the quarter-finals.
Former champion Lleyton Hewitt also bludgeoned his way into the fourth round with a dogged 6-3, 7-6, 6-4 victory over big-serving Frenchman Gael Monfils.
The diminutive Australian now faces a mouth-watering clash on Monday against number three seed Novak Djokovic, keen to avenge Serbia's defeat by Australia in the soccer World Cup.
Meanwhile, five-times champion Venus Williams dodged a potential banana skin with relative ease when she dispatched Russian 26th seed Alisa Kleybanova 6-4, 6-2 in the third round.
The 30-year-old American fell to an early break against the imposing Kleybanova, but broke back quickly and started to find her range both with serve and on her groundstrokes.
She peppered seven aces, one bomb clocked at 128mph, to put the Russian on the back foot and despite stretching the second set to almost an hour the Russian could not pierce the armoury of Williams, who prevailed in an hour and 37 minutes.
Kim Clijsters did her bit to set up an eagerly anticipated fourth-round clash with fellow-Belgian Justine Henin by crushing Russian Maria Kirilenko 6-3, 6-3 in her third-round match.
Clijsters, twice a semi-finalist at Wimbledon, blitzed her way to the opener in 27 minutes on a sunbaked Court Two at the All England Club.
Henin, who like Clijsters came out of retirement to try and win an elusive Wimbledon crown, made sure she kept up her end of the bargain by swatting aside Russian 12th seed Nadia Petrova 6-1, 6-4.
Jelena Jankovic did not expend any unnecessary energy on a sweltering day as she stifled Ukrainian Alona Bondarenko 6-0, 6-3 to reach the fourth round.
