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Ashleigh Barty has needed less than an hour to charge into Wimbledon's third round with a straight-sets win over Alison Van Uytvanck.
Ashleigh Barty will finally get a crack on tennis's most famous stage as world No.1 after storming into Wimbledon's third round with a crushing win over Alison Van Uytvanck.
Barty needed less than an hour to cast aside Van Uytvanck 6-1 6-3 on Thursday to extend her winning streak to 14 matches and further fuel hopes of becoming only the second woman this century to complete the French Open-Wimbledon title double.
Barty next plays British wildcard Harriet Dart on Saturday in a showstopper almost certain to be scheduled for Centre Court.
"If I got to play on the court, it would be incredible. One of the most beautiful courts in the world," Barty said after being shunted to Court 2 on Thursday.
"I'll play whenever I'm scheduled. There's not a bad court here at Wimbledon, all special in their own right."
The winner of her past 18 sets stretching back to the French Open semi-finals, Barty has earned herself a huge opportunity to embark on another deep grand slam run.
Two matches into her campaign and the Australian top seed's draw is already opening up like it did in Paris.
The shock first-round exits of 2017 Wimbledon champion Garbine Muguruza and world No.22 Donna Vekic have left Barty with a seed-free passage through to at least the second week.
Swiss 13th seed Belinda Bencic looms as Barty's highest-ranked possible last-16 opponent before a potential heavyweight quarter-final showdown with either seven-time champion Serena Williams or German titleholder Angelique Kerber.
All the talk after last Friday's draw was of Barty's quarter from hell featuring four former world No.1s and four former All England Club champions, among a total of seven major winners in her section.
But four grand slam champions from Barty's pocket - Muguruza, Maria Sharapova, Svetlana Kuznetsova and fellow Australian Samantha Stosur - have already bombed out.
Barty was also slated to strike a succession of big guns in Paris, but her supposed perilous draw never eventuated as the 23-year-old marched to Roland Garros glory only needing to beat one seed en route to the title - world No.14 Madison Keys in the quarter-finals.
"It was still tough. It just wasn't tough by what everyone expected and spoke about in regards to seedings," Barty said.
Van Uytvanck reached the final 16 at Wimbledon last year and loomed as a dangerous opponent for the top seed.
Barty, though, assumed control from the outset, breaking the Belgian twice to charge to a 5-0 lead.
She wrapped up the first set in 25 minutes before breaking Van Uytvanck for a third time early in the second set.
When landing her first serve Barty conceded just five points all match and dropped serve only once - when trying to close out the contest at 5-2 in the second set.
She hit 14 winners and committed a meagre seven unforced errors in matching her Wimbledon-best run to the third round from last year.
"Really clean match overall, not too many errors across the whole match," Barty said.
"Bit of a blemish trying to serve out the match but really happy with today.
"What happens in the rest of the draw is up to everyone else. It's not up to me."
Fellow Queenslander John Millman joined Barty in the last 32 with a 6-3 6-2 6-2 drubbing of Serbian 31st seed Laslo Djere and plays big-serving American Sam Querrey next on Saturday.
