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Aryna Sabalenka breezed through to the round of 16 in straight sets while Carlos Alcaraz was put through his paces by Nicolas Jarry.

Carlos Alcaraz remains on course to meet Novak Djokovic in the Wimbledon final after beating Nicolas Jarry 6-3, 6-7, 6-3, 7-5 in a testing encounter on centre court.

World number one Alcaraz is being billed as the only realistic challenger to the Serbian at Wimbledon, who himself progressed to the fourth round when beating Stan Wawrinka in straight sets on Friday.

Alcaraz needed four sets and almost four hours to defeat a player who had not competed at Wimbledon in four years and had only won one match there prior to this week.

“It has been really tough, Nicolas is a really great player, he’s playing really well,” said Alcaraz. “I’m just really happy with the level I played to get through this tough round.

“I had to stay focused. I knew I would have my chances. I would say the key is to believe and stay focused all the time.”

Elsewhere, women’s second seed Aryna Sabalenka blitzed Anna Blinkova with a routine 6-2, 6-3.

There were aces and backhand winners aplenty for the world number two during a first set on Court One that lasted 31 minutes and contained three breaks for the right-hander.

Blinkova struggled with her serve but in truth, she never had an answer for the quality shots her opponent was playing.

The 25-year-old won the match in 81 minutes with two consecutive aces, advancing to the second week of Wimbledon.

“I think it was definitely better tennis than yesterday the first set,” Sabalenka said in her on-court interview.

“It was tough, she played really well, tough end to the match and super happy with this win.

“It was like a nightmare that (seventh) game. Somehow I managed to finish that game with a win, but yeah it was crazy.

“A crazy game. Super happy I was able to handle myself in that situation.”

Sabalenka will play another Russian in the fourth round after the 21st seed Ekaterina Alexandrova beat Dalma Galfi 6-0, 6-4.