No.2 seed Aryna Sabalenka took another step towards a first Wimbledon title by coming through a match of two halves against Ekaterina Alexandrova on No.1 Court on Monday.

After finishing off a tight opening set the second was very much one-way traffic as the world No.2 powered back into the quarter-finals 6-4, 6-0 in 71 minutes. The victory sets up a meeting in the last eight with American Madison Keys.

“I’m super happy with the win, she’s a really tough opponent to play against,” Sabalenka told the crowd afterwards.

“I’m really enjoying every second on court, especially with your support, guys. I just want to stay as long as I can here to enjoy the atmosphere.”

The 25-year-old Australian Open champion certainly showed no signs of leaving SW19 any time soon during another dominant performance that reinforced her status as one of the favourites for the title.

What will surely have pleased her the most was the overall quality of her play against an opponent who has caused her problems in the past.

Alexandrova went into the match with a winning 3-2 record over Sabalenka having taken their last two meetings, the most recent of which was on a grass court in the Netherlands last summer.

But, having won her maiden Grand Slam title in Australia in January, Sabalenka is learning how to produce her best tennis when it matters most and on Wimbledon’s second biggest show court it was a different story.

There wasn’t much to separate the two during the opening few games but as the first set hurtled towards a conclusion it was Sabalenka who started to build pressure.

She had chances to break in the eighth game only for Alexandrova to level at 4-4. But the pressure only became more intense for the world No.22 in her next service game at 4-5.

The recent ’s-Hertogenbosch grass court champion saved three set points only to miss a backhand long to hand Sabalenka a fourth. The pressure she was under became too much and she double-faulted to finish the set.

The second set was a different story altogether. Sabalenka immediately took control and never loosened her grip on the match. Pounding groundstrokes from the back of the court, she allowed Alexandrova just seven points during that one-sided set on her way to the finish line.

As has been the case throughout the tournament, Sabalenka’s serving provided the foundation for victory. A Tennis Insights statistic towards the end of the match showed the No.2 seed’s shot quality on serve at 9.2 out of 10 - a number that is calculated by analysing the speed, spin, depth and width of every delivery.

She leads the tournament in aces struck (33) and is tied with Coco Gauff and defending champion Elena Rybakina for the fastest ladies’ serve of the Championships so far at 120mph.

While Keys will present a stern test in the last eight on Wednesday, 2021 semi-finalist Sabalenka will be favourite to take one more step towards a first Wimbledon trophy.

If any doubts crop up along the way, however, who better to turn to for help than a man who has won the title seven times? Sabalenka was pictured with Novak Djokovic on the practice courts earlier in the tournament and asked about their friendship during her post-match press.

“Very nice guy. I can easily ask him for advice and he would give it to me. I really appreciate it,” Sabalenka said.

“It's really good to have someone like Novak.”

New this year:

See the draw like never before, with interactive Path to the Final view of the draw by clicking a player’s name on the draws page

See the projected Path to the Final of every player in the Gentlemen’s and Ladies’ singles draws with IBM Likely to Play

View how favourable or difficult a player's draw is, with IBM AI Draw Analysis