Playing with a fluency that was missing in his first round victory, Federer strolled to a 6-2, 6-2, 6-4 win over Spain's Guillermo Garcia-Lopez.

Ominously, Federer, who next faces Germany's Philipp Kohlschreiber, said there was still plenty to more to come from him.

"I had to be solid and that's what I was," he said. "There are many rounds to pass and there will be guys who have nothing to lose against me. But I'm confident and I'm playing great."

Novak Djokovic, the man Federer is due to meet at the semi-final stage, also advanced to the last 32 but the Serb will be acutely aware that he will have to raise his game significantly if he is to prevent the Swiss maestro from claiming a sixth singles title at the All England Club.

With the crowd roaring on her opponent, Sharapova went down to a three-sets defeat to Gisela Dulko that will inevitably raise questions about whether the 2004 champion will ever reign again.

It was notable that support for Argentina's Dulko rose in parallel with the increase in the decibel levels of her opponent's grunting.

But Sharapova insisted that she had not been affected by the way the crowd had turned against her.

"That was the least of my worries today," she snapped after her 6-2, 3-6, 6-4 loss. "I was just trying to win a tennis match."

Sharapova was playing only her fourth tournament since she resumed playing after a ten-month lay-off during which she underwent surgery on her right shoulder.

But her exit was as much about how well Dulko played as any rustiness on the part of the Russian.

Sharapova's demise could ease the path to the final for Serena Williams, who demolished Australia's Jarmila Groth 6-2, 6-1 and underlined her determination to stop sister Venus from claiming a sixth singles title here.

Zheng Jie, the 16th seed and a semi-finalist here last year, also went out, beaten 6-3, 7-5 by Slovakia's Daniela Hantuchova, who will now face Japanese number one Ai Sugiyama.