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| Serena Williams, playing at Indian Wells in March, beat Julia Goerges of Germany 6-3, 6-4 today to reach the round of 16 at Wimbledon. Photo by Harjanto Sumali |
That was good news for Williams and bad news for Stephens.
The 11th-seeded Williams, a 37-year-old part-time resident of Silicon Valley, dispatched 18th-seeded Julia Goerges of Germany 6-3, 6-4 to reach Monday's round of 16.
Williams, a seven-time Wimbledon singles champion, has never dropped a set against Goerges, who lost to Williams in last year's semifinals at the All England Lawn Tennis Club, in five career matches.
The ninth-seeded Stephens, a 26-year-old Fresno product, fell to British favorite Johanna Konta, seeded 19th, 3-6, 6-4, 6-1.
Stephens, the 2017 U.S. Open champion and 2018 French Open runner-up, is 0-4 against Konta, who won the 2016 Bank of the West Classic at Stanford but has never reached a major final.
In the men's draw, Sam Querrey, a 6-foot-6 (1.98-meter) San Francisco native, pounded 27 aces in a 7-6 (3), 7-6 (8), 6-3 victory over John Millman of Australia.
Querrey reached the Wimbledon semifinals in 2017 and quarterfinals in 2016, ousting defending champions Andy Murray and Novak Djokovic, respectively.
Millman in 2015 became the first No. 1 seed in the history of the Aptos (Calif.) Challenger, which was 28 years old at the time, to win the title.
Williams will face 30th-seeded Carla Suarez Navarro, a 30-year-old Spaniard who eliminated American lucky loser Lauren Davis 6-3, 6-3.
Davis, one of the smallest players in professional tennis at 5-foot-2 (1.57 meters), was coming off a victory over fifth seed and defending champion Angelique Kerber.
Williams – the Bank of the West Classic champion in 2011, 2012 and 2014 – has never lost more than three games in a set in six career matches against the 5-foot-4 (1.62-meter) Suarez Navarro, who won the Stanford doubles title in 2014 with countrywoman Garbine Muguruza. In fact, Williams demolished Suarez Navarro 6-0, 6-0 in the quarterfinals of the 2013 U.S. Open.
Konta, 28, will play sixth-seeded Petra Kvitova, the Wimbledon champion in 2011 and 2014. Kvitova, who suffered a career-threatening hand injury in a 2016 knife attack, leads the head-to-head series 3-1.
Also today, Barbora Strycova, a 33-year-old Czech, bounced fourth-seeded Kiki Bertens, a Wimbledon quarterfinalist last year, 7-5, 6-1.
Strycova, a member of six Fed Cup championship teams, advanced to the Wimbledon quarters in 2014 for her best Grand Slam singles result.
Top-ranked Ashleigh Barty, seeking her second consecutive major title, dismissed Harriet Dart, a 22-year-old British wild card, 6-1, 6-1 in 53 minutes.
Barty, who has not surrendered more than four games in a set in three matches this week, will meet unseeded American Alison Riske, who surprised 13th-seeded Belinda Bencic of Switzerland 4-6, 6-4, 6-4.
Riske, 29, won a Wimbledon tuneup tournament in s-Hertogenbosch, Netherlands, last month for her second career WTA title.
Querrey, ranked No. 65 after climbing to a career-high No. 11 in February 2018, will meet countryman Tennys Sandgren, ranked No. 94, for the first time.
Sandgren, a quarterfinalist in the 2018 Australian Open and the runner-up in the 2017 Tiburon (Calif.) Challenger, eliminated 12th-seeded Fabio Fognini of Italy 6-3, 7-6 (12), 6-3.
Fognini, who shocked Rafael Nadal en route to his first Masters 1000 title in Monte Carlo title on clay in April, has never reached the fourth round at Wimbledon in 11 appearances.
Second-seeded Roger Federer and the third-seeded Nadal – who have won eight and two Wimbledon singles titles, respectively – advanced in straight sets.
Unseeded Mikhail Kukushkin, the Aptos runner-up in 2014 coming off a win over ninth-seeded John Isner, beat 33rd-seeded Jan-Lennard Struff of Germany 6-3, 7-6 (5), 4-6, 7-5 to reach the fourth round of a major for the second time and first since 2012.
Unseeded Joao Sousa of Portugal outlasted 5-foot-9 (1.75-meter) Daniel Evans of Great Britain 4-6, 6-4, 7-5, 4-6, 6-4 in 3 hours, 56 minutes.
Sousa, 30, ousted 13th-seeded Marin Cilic, the 2014 U.S. Open champion and 2017 Wimbledon runner-up, in the second round. Evans won Aptos in 2016 and reached the final there in 2013.
Seventeenth-seeded Matteo Berrettini, a 23-year-old Italian who won a Wimbledon tuneup tournament in Stuttgart last month without dropping a set, topped 24th-seeded Diego Schwartzman, a 5-foot-7 (1.70-meter) Argentine, 6-7 (5), 7-6 (2), 4-6, 7-6 (5), 6-3 in 4 hours, 19 minutes.
Bob Bryan and Murray, both rebounding from hip replacement surgery, won in men's doubles and mixed doubles, respectively.
Seventh-seeded Bob Bryan and Mike Bryan beat Marcelo Arevalo of El Salvador and Miguel Angel Reyes-Varela of Mexico 6-7 (13), 6-3, 6-4, 6-1 in the second round.
The 41-year-old Bryan twins (Stanford, 1997-98) have won three Wimbledon titles together, most recently in 2013. Mike Bryan also won last year's crown with Jack Sock while Bob Bryan was sidelined with a hip injury that required replacement surgery.
Murray, 32, and Williams defeated Andreas Mies of Germany and Alexa Guarachi of Chile 6-4, 6-1 in the first round.
In the second round of women's doubles, Anna-Lena Friedsam and Laura Siegemund of Germany eliminated 16th-seeded Raquel Atawo (Cal, 2001-04) of San Jose and Lyudmyla Kichenok of Ukraine 2-6, 6-4, 6-0.
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