Serena returns a shot in the game.

Serena Williams will still get a decent day's rest on the middle Sunday at Wimbledon.

The defending champion and six-time winner overwhelmed Annika Beck 6-3, 6-0 in just 51 minutes on Centre Court yesterday, advancing to the fourth round with her 300th career grand slam match win.

Williams, who compiled a 25-2 edge in winners, wasn't aware of the 300-win milestone until she was asked about it in a post-match interview. "Was it? Cool. Oh, nice," she said with a laugh. "I had no idea. That's awesome, right? That's good, right? I think that's a lot of matches."

Williams' latest win breaks a tie at 299 wins with Chris Evert and now ranks second in the Open era behind Martina Navratilova, who went 306-49.

For only the fourth time in Wimbledon's 139-year history, play was scheduled on the middle Sunday, which is the traditional rest day, because of rain delays in the first week that caused a backlog of matches.

"Obviously I love having that Sunday off but I'm a little behind in my matches, so I guess I had to play an extra day," Williams said.

She didn't have to work very hard as she dominated the 43rd-ranked Beck, who has never been past the third round here.

Williams next faces No. 13 Svetlana Kuznetsova, who rallied to beat No. 22 Sloane Stephens 6-7 (1), 6-2, 8-6 to reach the fourth round at Wimbledon for the first time since 2008.

CoCo Vandeweghe, making a strong run at Wimbledon for the second year in a row, beat No. 7 Roberta Vinci of Italy 6-3, 6-4 in the first match on Centre Court. The 27th-seeded American advanced to the quarterfinals here last year before losing to Maria Sharapova in three sets. This is the first time she's been seeded at a grand slam.

Her fourth-round opponent will be 23rd-seed Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova of Russia, who downed No. 11 Timea Bacsinszky of Switzerland 6-3, 6-2.

Also advancing was 50th-ranked Elena Vesnina, who beat 225th-ranked American qualifier Julia Boserup 7-5, 7-5. The Russian previously reached the fourth round here in 2009.

Meanwhile, a Frenchman being involved in a long — or rather very, very long — fifth set epic against John Isner at Wimbledon had a feeling of deja vu about it.

However, Jo Wilfried Tsonga made sure he did not end up on the losing side as his compatriot Nicolas Mahut did six years ago after he saved a match point to beat the American 6-7 (3), 3-6, 7-6 (5), 6-2, 19-17.

The tournament is still reverberating from the stunning exit of Novak Djokovic, whose bid for a fifth consecutive major title and the third leg of a calendar-year grand slam was stopped by American Sam Querrey in the third round.

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