The 2011 champion Petra Kvitova booked her fourth consecutive Wimbledon quarter-final appearance with a 7-6 (7-5) 6-3 win on Monday over Spain’s Carla Suarez Navarro.
Czech eighth seed Kvitova overpowered 19th-seeded Suarez Navarro with 23 winners and will face Belgian 20th seed Kirsten Flipkens for a place in the semi-finals.
As the highest seed remaining in the bottom half of the draw, Kvitova has a golden opportunity to reach her second grand glam final.
Since her surprise Wimbledon triumph, Kvitova has struggled to fulfil her potential and her past three grand slam appearances ended by the fourth round.
But she had made at least the last eight in each of her previous three visits to Wimbledon and the 23-year-old had one foot in the quarters again when she won a tight first set tiebreaker.
Kvitova landed the decisive break for a 4-2 lead in the second set before serving out the win.
Flipkens sealed her first grand slam quarter-final berth with a 7-6 (7-2) 6-3 victory against Italian veteran Flavia Pennetta.
The 27-year-old, who had failed to get past the third round in five previous Wimbledon appearances, appeared overwhelmed by her success as she crouched down to kiss the grass before wiping away tears as she waved to the crowd.
Also in Monday’s last-16 action, defending champion Serena Williams was set to face big-serving German Sabine Lisicki who accounted for Australian Samantha Stosur in the third round.
Williams is bidding for a fourth Wimbledon title in five years and the world No.1 swept through the first week, dropping just 11 games in her opening three matches.
Serena, who recorded her 600th career victory in the previous round, has won 77 of her 80 matches since losing in the French Open first round last year.
She is also on a 34-match winning streak, just one shy of the record 35 set by sister Venus in 2000.
In another last-16 match-up, unseeded Laura Robson will try to become the first British woman to reach the quarter-finals since Jo Durie in 1984.
Australia-born Robson, ranked 38th and the first British woman to make the last 16 for 15 years, takes on Estonia’s Kaia Kanepi, the world No.48, in the opening match on Court One.
Polish fourth seed Agnieszka Radwanska, last year’s beaten finalist, plays Tsvetana Pironkova, a Bulgarian who reached the semi-finals in 2010 and the last eight in 2011.
China’s Li Na, seeded sixth and a French Open winner, plays Italian 11th seed Roberta Vinci.
The presence of Williams, Pennetta, Li and Vinci in the fourth round represents the most 30-somethings through to the last 16 of any major since Wimbledon in 1994.
French 15th seed Marion Bartoli, the runner-up in 2007, plays Karin Knapp, the Italian world No.104.
Puerto Rico’s Monica Puig, the world No.65, will hope to extend her surprise run when she faces American 17th seed Sloane Stephens.