London: Jo-Wilfried Tsonga reached the Wimbledon last 16 on Sunday by downing US marathon man John Isner 6-7 (3/7), 3-6, 7-6 (7/5), 6-2, 19-17.
French 12th seed Tsonga, a semi-finalist in 2011 and 2012, saved a match point in the 32nd game of the final set. The last set alone lasted more than two hours.
Isner, the 18th seed, famously won the longest tennis match ever played when he beat another Frenchman, Nicolas Mahut. 70-68 in the final set at Wimbledon in the first round in 2010. The five-setter, stretched over three days, lasted 11 hours and five minutes. Isner had led Tsonga by two sets to one when play was halted at sunset on Saturday.
The American ended the four-hour, 25-minute tie with 38 aces, 101 winners and 53 unforced errors.
Earlier, Serena Williams needed just 51 minutes to clinch the 300th Grand Slam win of her career as the defending champion made the last 16.
The 34-year-old American brushed aside Germany’s world number 43 Annika Beck 6-3, 6-0 on the back of 25 winners and seven aces and goes on to face long-time Russian rival Svetlana Kuznetsova.
Two-time Grand Slam champion Kuznetsova reached the fourth round for the first time since 2008 despite becoming involved in a row with the umpire over coaching. The 31-year-old 13th seed battled back from 2-5 down in the final set to defeat US 18th seed Sloane Stephens 6-7 (1/7), 6-2, 8-6. But the Russian was hit with a code violation for coaching early in the final set which prompted a bitter exchange with umpire Marijana Veljovic.
Russian 21st seed Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova made the last 16 of a Slam for the first time since the 2011 US Open by seeing off Swiss 11th seed Timea Bacsi-nszky 6-3, 6-2. Russia’s Elena Vesnina made the fourth round by beating US qualifier Julia Boserup, the world number 225, 7-5, 7-5.
