Serbia's Novak Djokovic celebrates after beating Switzerland's Stan Wawrinka (not pictured) during their men's singles match at the Wimbledon tennis championships in London, England, July 7, 2023. /CFP
Novak Djokovic of Serbia reached the fourth round at Wimbledon for the 15th time on Friday with a straight-sets defeat of old rival Stan Wawrinka of Switzerland.
Djokovic, 36, is chasing a record-equaling eighth title at the All England Club and 24th career Grand Slam crown. He came through 6-3, 6-1, 7-6 (7/5) against the 38-year-old Wawrinka.
World number two Djokovic will face Poland's Hubert Hurkacz who he has defeated five times in as many meetings for a place in the quarterfinals.
Friday's win was Djokovic's 21st in 27 meetings with Wawrinka, a three-time major champion who had famously defeated the Serb in the 2015 French Open and 2016 U.S. Open finals.
Djokovic never faced a break point under the Centre Court roof and completed victory just 15 minutes before the match curfew kicked in.
Carlos Alcaraz of Spain plays a backhand during his match against Alexandre Muller of France (not pictured) at the Wimbledon tennis championships in London, England, July 7, 2023. /CFP
Also on Friday, Carlos Alcaraz of Spain defeated 84th-ranked Alexandre Muller of France 6-4, 7-6(2), 6-3, putting on an entertaining if error-strewn performance for an appreciative Center Court crowd.
Frenchman Muller, 26, who has spent most of his professional career on the second-tier challenger circuit, took advantage of his 20-year-old opponent producing an uncharacteristic number of unforced errors, 41 in all.
But the smiling young Spaniard's all-round game, a mixture of power and exquisite touch tennis, was just too strong for Muller.
Alcaraz said it was special to notch his first victory on the "really beautiful court."
"I feel that I belong in that court. I feel like I'm ready to play more matches, to play more great matches on that court," he said.
"It would be amazing for me to play a final here in Wimbledon. Even better if is against Novak obviously."
Poland's Iga Swiatek reacts after beating Croatia's Petra Martic (not pictured) during their women's singles match at the Wimbledon tennis championships in London, England, July 7, 2023. /CFP
In the women's singles, top seed Iga Swiatek of Poland kept her Wimbledon campaign on track with a 6-2, 7-5 defeat of Croatia's Petra Martic on Friday as she reached the fourth round without dropping a set.
The four-time Grand Slam champion was made to work harder than the scoreline suggests but was still relatively untroubled as she matched her best run at the championships.
She will face Swiss 14th seed Belinda Bencic next.
"I'm happy I could close it out at the end of the second set," the 22-year-old Swiatek, who has been world number one for 67 successive weeks, said on court.
"Belinda is playing a great game and it's never going to be easy in the fourth round of a slam," she said.
(With input from agencies)