Serena Williams has the look

TODAY’S FEATURED MATCHES

All third round

World rankings in parentheses

Serena Williams (2) vs. Roberta Vinci (53), Italy

Williams just has that look -- one that can make half a bracket seem as if it’s disintegrating to the floor like Christmas tree needles.

Roger Federer (2), Switzerland, vs. Philipp Kohlschreiber (32), Germany

Kohlschreiber, who admirably upended Novak Djokovic at the French Open, is 0-3 against Federer. That is much better than so many other players.

Novak Djokovic (4), Serbia, vs. Mardy Fish (25)

It’s the rematch of the 2008 Indian Wells final. Why they’re not billing it as such is a clear case of myopia.

Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (9), France, vs. Ivo Karlovic (36), Croatia

Against the charismatic Tsonga comes Karlovic, known mostly for being really tall. That’s still better than being famous for a whole lot of other things. Such as, say, being governor of South Carolina.

Victoria Azarenka (8), Belarus, vs. Sorana Cirstea (27), Romania

To many sage observers, Azarenka represents the biggest female threat without the surname “Williams.” That means the Microsoft Works program should recognize her and, seriously, stop trying to change the spelling to -- not kidding -- “Macarena.”

Fernando Verdasco (8), Spain, vs. Albert Montanes (33), Spain

Even without Rafael Nadal, this multi-sport powerhouse nation posts six of the final 32 male players. Maybe one day they’ll even catch up to soccer titans such as the United States.

ENGLISH BREAKFAST

When one has been the queen of England for 57 years, one can weather some serious tennis droughts, and so Elizabeth II, who last attended Wimbledon to present the women’s singles trophy to Virginia Wade in 1977, gamely sent a letter to the All England Club on Wednesday. An official delivered it to Andy Murray at his practice court, and it congratulated the world’s No. 3 player on winning the Queen’s Club tuneup and wished him good luck at Wimbledon. Having tweeted that he “put it in its own pile away from the bills,” Murray later said, “Yeah, it’s surprising. I mean, you don’t get that every day.”

BRITMANIA UPDATE

Evidently, Wimbledon patrons of a certain torpor had been parking at St. Mary’s Church just down Church Road from the All England Club. Evidently, they had been paying ?20 -- or about $32 -- to avoid walking a distance. Evidently, they would pay and then steer through trees, hedges and, um, the church cemetery, to find their spaces, as shown in a National Pictures photo of a BMW stashed between two rows of headstones. Evidently, this did not persist after it got some attention, but it did afford a sterling opportunity to one headline writer at the London tabloid Metro: “Going to Wimbledon? Over My Dead Body.”

CENTRE COURT ROOF UPDATE

That’s one extravagant roof followed by five rainless days, which may or may not demonstrate the folly of building a roof during periods of possible global warming.

ALSO THURSDAY AT WIMBLEDON

Venus Williams expressed her admiration for the persistence of questioning about her latest accessory, bandages on the calf and thigh of her left leg during her rout of Kateryna Bondarenko. But she navigated all questions coyly. Labeling the bandages as “just for support,” she said, “What happened was that I needed some support, and then I went and got the support, and then I wore it in the match. I’ll be wearing it in doubles too. So it’s working out. I mean, I think all the players might start wearing it because it’s so supportive.” . . . Williams and her sister Serena, the defending doubles champions, won their first match, 6-3, 6-3, over Virginie Razzano and Aravane Rezai of France. . . . French Open finalists and fallen stars played on outside courts, but all prevailed, including Svetlana Kuznetsova, Dinara Safina, Ana Ivanovic and Amelie Mauresmo . . .

STAT OF THE DAY

5 -- Number of unforced errors committed by the mind-bogglingly scrutinized Murray of Britain in a sublime 6-2, 7-5, 6-3, second-round win over Ernests Gulbis of Latvia.

QUOTE OF THE DAY

Andy Roddick, answering a British reporter’s somber question about his shocking Twitter confession that while his wife, Brooklyn, annoys him by playing Miley Cyrus, Britney Spears and Taylor Swift, he likes the 1980s English schlockster Rick Astley: “What do you want me to say? I said I wasn’t proud, but I’m not going to lie to anybody. I busted my wife on some of her crappy music. She brought up Rick Astley. I can’t deny it. It’s in my iPod. I bet it’s in your iPod, too, so shut up.”

-- Chuck Culpepper