One of the first women's games out on court yesterday, it was a pretty routine, straight-sets win over Gisela Dulko of Argentina, but only once she had managed to overcome her own mental hang-ups.

Having lost the first four games in the opening set, she finally switched gears and managed to get herself back on track, before eventually winning the tie-break.

"Maybe, in the beginning I felt a bit nervous and couldn't get my game going. After love-four, I just decided not to think about the score, just to play every single point and be focused on the game. I felt like I had already lost the set but I was trying to fight to the end and I was a bit lucky."

Having stepped up her game, she then went on to triumph in the second, winning it 7-5 to reach the fourth round.

It sets her up nicely for the second week, with only a couple of top-10-ranked players left in her section of the draw. Her best performance to date on the grass surface of SW19 was a quarter-final place two years ago but with two of the top three seeds already out of the tournament and the other picking up an injury, the players are aware that the route to a Grand Slam triumph is opening up. Especially with so much pressure piling up on the highest seeded player left in the draw, Jelena Jankovic.

"She can be No.1 if she wins one or two matches, so I think all the pressure is on her," said Dementieva. "But I feel that even though Sharapova and Ivanovic lost we still have so many great players in the draw. It's going to be a really big chance for everyone."

Jankovic's next opponent will be Tamarine Tanasugarn of Thailand, who beat New Zealand's Marina Erakovic to reach the fourth round at Wimbledon for the fourth time in her career.

One player who knows all about taking opportunities when they come along is Alla Kudryavtseva. It was the 20-year-old who vanquished former winner Maria Sharapova in the second round, and yesterday she made sure that hard work wasn't in vain, continuing her run with a three sets win over Shuai Peng, taking the match 6-3, 1-6, 6-4.

Next up is a fellow Russian. Nadia Petrova defeated the higher ranked Victoria Azarenka, of Belarus, in two sets, both taken to the tie break.

It was another example of how the Russian ladies have the upper hand in this year's tournament. Half a dozen of them have made it through to the business end of the competition and it could have been seven had Dinara Safina not succumbed to Shahar Peer in a dogged three-set affair. But, after Anna Chakvetadze and Svetlana Kuznetsova won through on Friday, they were joined by Dementieva, Kudryavtseva, Petrova, as well as Alisa Kleynbanova yesterday, who beat Ai Sugiyama 6-4, 6-4.

The Russian dominance may not be a new phenomenon. The country dominates the top 10 rankings and it is simply a case of thriving on competition, according to Dementieva. "That's how we keep working hard and improving our game."

Venus Williams was the other women's winner yesterday with a comfortable straight-sets win over Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez.