Doing it her way, USA's Bethanie Mattek-Sands advances at Wimbledon

LONDON – Newly 30 and never one to follow the crowd, American Bethanie Mattek-Sands is into the third round at Wimbledon for the first time since 2008 – purple hair intact.

Wednesday afternoon the Arizona native took issue with the "excessive" dress code applied here, but she did more talking with her tennis in a straight-set upset over Ana Ivanovic, the No. 7 seed, a 6-3, 6-4 winner against the world's former top player.

A week ago Mattek-Sands toiled her way through three qualifying matches at the nearby Roehampton facility, her ranking having dipped to No. 158 after a hip injury set her out for nearly six months last season.

"I think if you can play at Roehampton, you can play anywhere," laughed Mattek-Sands. "Some of those bounces were shocking. But I've got five matches on grass now… I feel really comfortable on it. I feel like me and the grass are one right now."

She showed that on Wednesday, cracking her big, looping groundstrokes and booming serve while winning an astounding 29 of 38 points at the net. In her five singles matches she has yet to drop a set, and now faces No. 30 seed Belinda Bencic in the third round.

While all the talk has surrounded Serena Williams and her chase of the calendar Grand Slam, Mattek-Sands is chasing one as well – in doubles. She and partner Lucie Safarova have won doubles crowns at both the Australian and French Opens, success that Mattek-Sands said has helped her singles play.

"It's a lot of matches and a lot of confidence," Mattek-Sands said of playing with Safarova, who was a finalist at the French Open in singles, as well.

"I have gained confidence from playing doubles for sure. It's almost better than a practice, in a way, because you get those game points, holding, breaking… the pressure situations."

The red, white and blue had a vastly successful day on Wednesday in London, with both Serena and Venus Williams advancing in two sets, as well as Sloane Stephens, CoCo Vandeweghe, Denis Kudla and Madison Keys. Keys won a first-round match held over from Tuesday evening.

Serena Williams, the world No. 1, had praise for Mattek-Sands.

"She has a great game for grass," said Williams, who next faces Heather Watson of Great Britain. "She has a great serve … and, you know she has a great, positive attitude and outlook on everything. I'm really happy for her and I'm not surprised. I wasn't surprised when I saw that score at all because I know her ability to play well."

Mattek-Sands has been ranked as high as No. 30 in the world and has reached the fourth round of a major twice in her career: Here in 2008 (losing to Serena) and in 2013 at the French Open (lost to Maria Kirilenko).

"A few years ago I was being asked, 'What happened to USA tennis?'" Mattek-Sands said. "It comes and goes. I think there were a lot of younger players that were coming up and showed promise. Sure enough, I think we have a really strong contingent of American players here and it's really good to see."

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