Petra Kvitova, Madison Keys, Ekaterina Alexandrova stay hot on the grass at Wimbledon

Will Petra Kvitova or Madison Keys emerge as the finalist from the bottom half of the Wimbledon women’s draw come next week?

There’s a long way to go before that can happen for either player, but both competitors remained perfect on grass this season at 7-0 with their second-round victories Friday at the London major.

Kvitova overpowered Alikasandra Sasnovich, 6-2, 6-2, in 74 minutes. The left-hander struck 25 winners to 17 unforced errors and won an impressive 62 percent of her points on return in breaking Sasnovich six times to erase the memories of a painful defeat here five years ago.

"Not nice memories of the Centre Court against her. But I turned it around today, so I'm happy that I won," Kvitova told press. "Today was pretty hot and sunny. The balls were pretty nicely flying. It got a little bit windy, as well, sometimes."

The No. 9 seed is a two-time champion here, though has managed to advance beyond the third round just once in seven appearances since triumphing for the second time nine years ago. Kvitova picked up her 31st tour-level trophy at the WTA 500 event in Berlin just under two weeks ago, defeating Donna Vekic in that final.

In a matchup of former quarterfinalists, Keys eased past Viktorija Golubic, 7-5, 6-3, to match Kvitova in avenging a past loss at The Championships. The 25th seed dazzled on her first serve, taking 36 of 39 points, and conceded just one break on the day to lock up the win after 80 minutes.

"Really happy with how things went today. Haven't had the best results against her, so it was obviously a tough match," she said.

Keys arrived to SW19 with Eastbourne’s 500-level crown in hand following a final-round victory over Daria Kasatkina. The 27-year-old has reached the semifinals at every major except Wimbledon.

Ekaterina Alexandrova, who retained the title at s-Hertogenbosch in June, has now won nine of the 10 grass-court contests she’s played this year. The No. 21 seed was two points from losing in a see-saw battle with Madison Brengle, but survived, 6-7 (4), 7-6 (5), 7-6 (10-7), to clinch Wimbledon’s first women’s match with three tie-break sets in the Open Era.

Alexandrova missed three match points with Brengle serving at 4-5 in the third set, subsequently got broken and saw Brengle open at 30-15 when trying to close the door herself. The Russian recovered, then needed every bit of an 8-2 cushion in the decisive tiebreaker as Brengle closed the gap to 6-8 at one stage.