Ana Ivanovic claimed she is a better player now than when she was world number one.

She booked her place in the fourth round after defeating Samantha Stosur.

Ivanovic arrived at the All England Club last year as the French Open champion and on top of the world rankings, but she lost in the third round to Chinese wild-card entry Jie Zheng and then failed to win back-to-back matches in her next five tournaments.

The Serbian slipped to fifth in the rankings by the end of the year and is currently 12th, and she also lost in the first round of the Wimbledon warm-up tournament in Eastbourne earlier this month.

But after saving a match point in the opening round at Wimbledon, the 21-year-old has been improving steadily and looked close to her best as she beat Australia's French Open semi-finalist Stosur 7-5 6-2 on Court Two.

Asked to compare her game now and 12 months ago, Ivanovic said: "At the moment I feel better on the court than I felt then. I feel my game has improved and my serve has improved. I get much more speed on it and much more variety.

"I just felt like I needed some more matches to get match confidence and I feel like I'm getting that back too. I think my game is probably even better than it was (when I was number one).

"I feel also much more experienced and much more mature in some ways. I went through a lot over the past year, being number one, having some disappointing losses and some tough times.

"I think that made me stronger and made me appreciate some things, not take every match you win for granted, but just appreciate the hard work that was put in."

Ivanovic will face Venus Williams in the fourth round on Monday, in a repeat of the 2007 semi-final which Williams won 6-2 6-4 on her way to the title.

"I'm very excited," added Ivanovic, who has lost five of her six matches against the five-time champion. "She plays really well here and is the champion the last two years.

"She's a very dangerous opponent but I think I have a great chance and I feel very comfortable going into that match. I'm so excited to have the opportunity for that challenge because in my first round I was half gone (she saved match point against Lucie Hradecka).

"To come back and win another couple of matches and play better each match, it definitely gives me confidence.

"I'm just very thrilled because I put lot of hard work in over the past few weeks and it's great to see the results.

"I just want to go out there and enjoy it, take it as a challenge, because I haven't really played against too many high-ranked players lately because I wasn't putting myself in a position to."

Ivanovic broke Stosur's serve in the opening game of the match and then held her own with the aid of three aces, dropping just three points on serve before a lapse of concentration in the eighth game allowed Stosur to get back on level terms.

That prompted the first chants of "Let's go Sammy" from the yellow-shirted Australian fans occupying two rows of seats, but their support failed to have the desired effect, Stosur serving back-to-back double faults to lose her serve again.

Another ace from Ivanovic - clocked at 112mph - gave her three set points and she took the second one to claim the set in 38 minutes.

The second set followed a similar pattern to the first, 19th seed Stosur again losing her serve in the opening game, but this time Ivanovic also added a second break after a thumping return winner to charge into a 4-0 lead.

Stosur saved a match point on her own serve to keep the match alive, but Ivanovic was not to be denied and served out to complete an impressive victory.

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