Due to inclement weather in the first week, there was action on “Middle Sunday” at Wimbledon, for just the fourth time in history.

Tsonga Outlasts Isner

John Isner is obviously no stranger to marathon matches at Wimbledon, and on Sunday he was involved in another. In a contest that began on Saturday and lasted for 4 hours, 24 minutes, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga defeated the American, 6-7, 3-6, 7-6, 6-2, 19-17

Both players were strong on service games, in a fifth set that lasted more than two hours. But in the 35th game, Tsonga finally broke through for the only break of the set.

The Frenchman played at a high-level throughout much of the match. His clean, consistent tennis produced 88 winners to just 20 unforced errors. The two players combined for 59 aces in the match.

Afterward, both players addressed the epic 2010 marathon match between Isner and Nicolas Mahut, which came to mind during play. “I knew the match could go a long way,” Isner said, “but I wasn’t thinking about what happened six years ago.”

Tsonga said the thought briefly came to mind. “Once, I said, ‘Maybe it’s going to be long, like for Nicolas.” He said. He will need to recover quickly as he will face fellow countryman Richard Gasquet on Monday.

Serena Breezes

Serena Williams found the going much easier on Sunday than in her last outing as she advanced past Annika Beck 6-3, 6-0.

The win, that took just 51 minutes, was just what the doctor ordered for the world no. 1. Williams, who was forced to battle through in her third round match against Christina McHale.

Williams overpowered the German who found herself in defensive mode for much of the match and was only able to come up with 2 winners. Meanwhile, Serena had one of her best serving days of the tournament and was relentless in attacking both the first and second serve from Beck.

It was the 300th singles victory at a major for the American who did not realize until afterward, “No. Was it? Cool. Oh, nice,” Williams said. “I had no idea. That's awesome, right? That's good, right?”

Kuznetsova Advances Past Stephens

In what turned out to be one of the more competitive matches in the women’s draw thus far, 13th seeded Svetlana Kuznetsova defeated 18 seed Sloane Stephens, 6-7, 6-2, 8-6.

The Russian continued her resurgence with the hard fought victory. The 31-year old overcame a deficit and an encounter with the chair umpire to earn the win. Trailing 2-1 in the third set, chair umpire Marijana Veljovic issued a code violation for illegal coaching. The veteran denied the claim and temporarily lost her temper but regained composure and focus and gutted out the long set.

It took nearly two and half hours, with only a handful of points separating the players, but Kuznetsova advanced and will face Serena on Monday.