Day 4: The Women

So now, we know all 32 women in the third round. The top half of the women's draw completed their second-round matches today, and only 10 of the 16 seeds in this half are still alive.
That group is headlined by Serena Williams, who waited a long time to get on court, and then spent precious little time there once her match started. She clobbered former top 10 player Anna Chakvetadze 6-0, 6-1 on Court 2. It's hard to believe, with that scoreline, that Chakvetadze was once one of the top young players in the sport. She's a long, long way away from that now, and it doesn't look like she's close to getting back to that level.
Williams is still on course to face Maria Sharapova, who was also very strong in her 6-1, 6-4 win over Ioana Raluca Olaru. Those two are now one match away from meeting up in the Round of 16. Serena needs to get through Dominika Cibulkova, and Sharapova needs to bat Barbora Zahlavova-Strycova to make it happen. Definitely doable.
Waiting for them in the quarters will probably be either Na Li or Agnieszka Radwanska. Radwanska has looked good in her first two rounds, and today beat Alberta Brianti of Italy 6-2, 6-0. Li topped Kurumi Nara 6-2, 6-4 and could make it past Radwanska, should the two of them meet. Don't forget, she was a semifinalist at the Australian Open this year and beat Sharapova in the warm-up at Birmingham. She'll be tough to beat.
I haven't seen Caroline Wozniacki play yet, but she can't be complaining too much about her draw. She plays Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova next. Both have looked good in their early matches. Pavlyuchenkova gave Serena a fight at Roland Garros, and she's due for a breakthrough against a top player. Is there a chance it could come here? Yes, but probably not a great one. Petra Kvitova and Victoria Azarenka play the other third-round match here. Kvitova's a big hitter who reached the Round of 16 at the U.S. Open last year, and she's in the same generation as Sabine Lisicki, Cibulkova and Yanina Wickmayer. Of the four, she's the least accomplished, but if Azarenka's not 100 percent, and she didn't look like she was in Eastbourne, Kvitova's got a chance.
The winner of that section will most likely advance from that quarter, because the rest of the players there aren't quite so strong. Flavia Pennetta's lived up to her seeding of 10th, but her results on grass haven't been the best. She'll play Klara Zakopalova for the right to play either Alexandra Dulgheru or Kaia Kanepi. Kanepi followed up her first-round upset over Samantha Stosur with a 6-4, 7-5 win over Edina Gallovits, but Dulgheru's been impressive on the grass. Right now, I'm leaning a little bit towards her to get out of that section.