LONDON — Rafael Nadal drew level with Bjorn Borg with his 51st victory at Wimbledon, beating two-time semifinalist Jo-Wilfried Tsonga 6-2, 6-3, 6-2 in the third round on Saturday.
Nadal beat Tsonga on Centre Court in a match that wasn’t nearly as taxing as his second-round victory over Nick Kyrgios. He never faced a break point, broke Tsonga five times, and served out the match with an ace.
It was their first meeting at a Grand Slam tournament since the 2008 Australian Open, when Tsonga beat Nadal in the semifinals.
Nadal is now tied for eighth with Borg on the men’s all-time list of most match wins at the All England Club, where he won the title in 2008 and 2010. It was also his tour-leading 35th match win of the season, which could be matched later Saturday by Roger Federer, who was up next on Centre Court against Lucas Pouille.
In other matches, Kei Nishikori recorded his 400th career tour-level win to reach the fourth round at Wimbledon.
The former US Open finalist beat Steve Johnson 6-4, 6-3, 6-2 on No. 3 Court to make it into the second week for the third time in four years. He reached the quarterfinals last year for his best result at the All England Club.
Sam Querrey also advanced to the fourth round. The unseeded American, who reached the semifinals in 2017 after beating Andy Murray, defeated John Millman 7-6 (3), 7-6 (8), 6-3.
Querrey will play in the second week at the grass-court Grand Slam tournament for the fourth time.
American Tennys Sandgren extended his run by upsetting 12th-seeded Fabio Fognini 6-3, 7-6 (12), 6-3 in the third round.
Coming into the tournament, Sandgren had not earned a tour-level victory since Auckland in January, but he beat a top-10-ranked player at a Grand Slam for the third time. He knocked out both Stan Wawrinka and Dominic Thiem en route to the Australian Open quarterfinals last year.
Against Fognini, Sandgren saved four set points in the tiebreaker before converting his fourth, which he set up with a running backhand winner following a long rally.
The 10th-ranked Fognini was trying to reach the fourth round of Wimbledon for the first time. Sandgren lost to eventual champion Novak Djokovic in the first round last year in his debut.
A third-round match between Mikhail Kukushkin and Jan-Lennard Struff was suspended in the fourth set after a fan needed to be treated by medical personnel at Court 12. Kukushkin was leading 6-3, 7-6 (5), 4-6, 2-2 when the incident occurred, and play was scheduled to resume 20 minutes later.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.