Federer, Serena roll on

ROGER Federer extended his flawless winning streak at Wimbledon to 26 consecutive sets as the champion crushed Lukas Lacko, while Serena Williams powered to her 16th successive win in yesterday’s second-round action.

Federer delivered a masterclass lasting 89 minutes as the Swiss star hit 48 winners and 16 aces in a 6-4, 6-4, 6-1 victory.

The 36-year-old is now on his joint second longest streak of sets won at Wimbledon — his best was 34 between the third round in 2005 to the 2006 final.

Next up for Federer is a third round tie against German world No.64 Jan-Lennard Struff, who came back from two sets down to defeat Ivo Karlovic 13-11 in the final set.

Seven-time winner Williams routed Bulgarian qualifier Viktoriya Tomova 6-1, 6-4.

She brushed aside Tomova in 66 minutes with 24 winners and four aces to extend her streak of consecutive match wins at the All England Club.

The 36-year-old, whose winning run encompasses her Wimbledon titles in 2015 and 2016, missed the grass-court grand slam last year while she prepared to give birth to daughter Alexis Olympia.

Seeded 25th after her return from maternity leave, she faces France’s Kristina Mladenovic for a place in the last 16.

Five-time champion Venus Williams battled into the third round with a 4-6, 6-0, 6-1 win over Romanian qualifier Alexandra Dulgheru.

Venus next faces Dutch 20th seed Kiki Bertens, who defeated Russian Anna Blinkova 6-4, 6-0.

Former world No.1 Karolina Pliskova finally made it to the third round on her seventh visit after seeing off two-time Australian Open champion Victoria Azarenka 6-3, 6-3.

Former finalist Agnieszka Radwanska lost 7-5, 6-4 to Czech Lucie Safarova.