For a day, Wimbledon turns hospitable to the 20-and-under

On a day that featured the 31-year-old Serena Williams defeating 42-year-old Kimiko Date-Krumm, youth had its moment in the sun. Yes, the sun was out at Wimbledon on Saturday after two days of on-and-off rain.

This tournament had already tied the Open era record for fewest men's and women's top-10 seeds reaching the third round, and 20-year-old Bernard Tomic sent another out, defeating No. 9 seed Richard Gasquet, 7-6 (7), 5-7, 7-5, 7-6 (5).

Britain's favorite teenager, Laura Robson, rallied to reach the fourth round of a Grand Slam tournament for the first time. Sloane Stephens, 20, won her suspended match to set up a fourth-round meeting with Monica Puig, 19.

And Madison Keys, 18, nearly knocked off another top-10 seed, taking No. 4 Agnieszka Radwanska to three sets before running out of answers to Radwanska's shot-making in a 7-5, 4-6, 6-3 loss.

"It's good to see young people doing well," Tomic said. "In this sport, it's very difficult to mature and get these sort of results at a Grand Slam."

Tomic would know. Great things were expected of him when he reached the quarterfinals here in 2011 as an 18-year-old qualifier. His inconsistent results and off-the-court distractions have spurred questions about his development. He came into this tournament ranked 59th and mired in more controversy, with his father and coach barred from the grounds after being accused of assaulting Tomic's training partner in Madrid in early May.

Coming into the tournament, Tomic had lost his last 11 matches against top-10 players and had won only two matches since his father's incident in Madrid. Against Gasquet, he showed how well grass suits his game, but his attitude may be what suits him best as Wimbledon heads into its second week.

"I'm trying to relax as much as I can," said Tomic, who will play No. 7 Tomas Berdych in the fourth round Monday. "In the year 2011, I had nothing to lose, I really stepped up and played really good. Now I'm feeling very similar. I'm going to keep this up, relax on court, have fun, see where it takes me here."

He dismissed the notion that he was having success without his father's help.

"When I have my time off, when I leave the site, I'm with my dad," said Tomic, the youngest man left in the draw. "He's helping me at this tournament. We're doing the right things. This is why the results are showing off now. I'm not doing it on my own. My dad is still involved. That's why I've gotten to where I am in the tournament."

Robson, 19, was close to being out of the tournament despite the raucous support of the Court 2 crowd. Against Marina Erakovic of New Zealand, Robson came out sluggishly, unable to handle Erakovic's serve, and lost the first set, 6-1.

Erakovic served for the match at 5-4 in the second set, but Robson finally broke her serve. In the 12th game, Erakovic gave Robson a set point with a double fault. On the next point, a Robson shot was called out, but a video review showed it was barely in. The point was replayed, and Markovic double-faulted again to give Robson the second set.

Robson broke Erakovic in the second game of the third set and rolled from there, closing out a 1-6, 7-5, 6-3 victory with a forehand winner down the line. She is the first British woman to reach the fourth round of Wimbledon since 1998.

"It's good to do well, especially at Wimbledon," Robson said. "But, you know, I'm going to be playing for, like, another 10 years, so, you know, it's all bonuses for now."

Stephens, a semifinalist at the Australian Open this year, has reached the fourth round of a Grand Slam tournament for the third straight time, but she, too, was in a precarious position. After winning the first set Friday against No. 196 Petra Cetkovska, Stephens lost the second, 6-0, showing little fight and complaining about the darkness.

When the match resumed Saturday, Stephens seemed to pick up where she left off, losing the first two games.

"Yeah, it was definitely tough; lost focus there," Stephens said, adding that it was "weird" to have to go out and play only one set. Luckily for Stephens, Cetkovska, who upset No. 9 Caroline Wozniacki in the previous round, was having even more trouble. Four straight games featured a break of serve. After Stephens held in the sixth game of the set, Cetkovska gave the next one away with three double faults, and Stephens went on to win, 7-6 (3), 0-6, 6-4.

Playing the bottom half of the draw vacated by No. 2 Victoria Azarenka, No. 3 Maria Sharapova, No. 5 Sara Errani and Wozniacki, No. 17 Stephens has yet to face a seeded player. In the fourth round Monday, she will play No. 65-ranked Puig in a matchup of two of the most promising players on the tour.

Puig, who represents Puerto Rico but has lived in Miami for much of her life, is competing in her first Wimbledon main draw as a professional, but has beaten Errani here and defeated two top-20 players while reaching the third round at the French Open.

Stephens said she and Puig had briefly attended the academy run by Nick Saviano in South Florida at the same time, but she added, "We're not besties."

Like Puig, Keys has had a successful first full season on the pro tour. She reached the third round here and at the Australian Open, and the second round at Roland Garros. Ranked No. 52, she will soon break into the top 50.

She nearly claimed the biggest win of her career against Radwanska, a Wimbledon finalist last year. Keys and Radwanska engaged in an entertaining, 2-hour-and-22-minute slugfest that included a 57-minute first set. (By comparison, Novak Djokovic dispatched Jeremy Chardy in 86 minutes, losing only six points on his serve.)

The last time they played, in 2012 on the Miami hardcourts, Radwanska demolished Keys, 6-1, 6-1. Keys acknowledged she just wanted to do better than that. Indeed, she showed how much she had grown as a player.

"I was really happy with how well I fought and how I really stayed in there," Keys said. "I was really happy with my serve, being able to keep using it and keep going for it the entire match. I don't think I've ever done that in the past."

The young players are not having all the fun. Nine players 30 and older are in the round of 16, tying the 1975 tournament for the most at Wimbledon in the Open era. The players include No. 13 seed Tommy Haas, 35; Lukasz Kubot of Poland, 31, who upset No. 25 Benoit Paire; and fourth-seeded David Ferrer, 31, who fell behind Alexandr Dolgopolov, but won, 6-7 (6), 7-6 (2), 2-6, 6-1, 6-2.

© 2013, The New York Times News Service