CARA Black and Liezel Huber remained on course for their third Wimbledon women’s doubles title as a team when they reached the quarter-finals of the third Grand Slam of the year in London yesterday.

The top-seeded pair of Zimbabwe’s female tennis star Black and her American partner Huber moved into the last eight at the All England Club yesterday after labouring to a 2-6, 6-3, 6-4 victory over the battling unseeded Czech duo of Iveta Benesova and Barbora Zahlavova Strycova.

The match lasted 1hour 50 minutes.

According to reports from London, Black and Huber, winners of the women’s doubles title at Wimbledon in 2005 and 2007, were given a scare by Benesova and Zahlavova Strycova, who took the first set 6-2 after 34 minutes.

In fact, at one stage in that set, Black and Huber found themselves down 0-4 before their opponents wrapped it up 6-2 by holding serve in the eighth game.

Sensing that their opponents were no pushovers, Black and Huber lifted their game in the second set which, however, saw the first seven games going with serve.

But a break of serve in the eighth game gave Black and Huber the initiative as they took a 5-3 lead before holding theirs in the ninth to win the set 6-3 and leveled the scores at one-set all.

That set the scene for a frenetic third and final set whose first six games went with serve before Black and Huber broke their opponents in the seventh game to lead 4-3.

They then went on to hold serve in the eighth game to lead 5-3 and a scent of victory was in the air.

But Benesova and Zahlavova Strycova did not quickly drop their bundle as they fought back to hold serve in the ninth game to stay alive at 4-5.

However, Black and Huber were not to be denied victory as they went on to win the 10th game to love and with it the set and match.

Play in the third set lasted 41 minutes.

Surprisingly, Black and Huber won this tie despite committing the most number of unforced errors (13-9) and they also made eight doublefaults as compared to their opponents’ nil.

Benesova and Zahlavova Strycova also found themselves at the receiving end despite firing four aces past Black and Huber who found non.

But it was experience at this level of competition, which counted at the end of the day as co-world number ones Black and Huber dug in to emerge triumphant to move into the last eight.

Black and Huber booked their third round date with Benesova and Zahlavova Strycova after posting a straightforward 7-5, 6-2 victory over Poles Klaudia Jans and Alicja Rosolska in round two at the weekend.

Meanwhile, another Zimbabwean doubles specialist Kevin Ullyett and his Brazilian partner Bruno Soares, the fifth seeds, were late last night fighting for a place in the men’s doubles quarter-finals at Wimbledon against the unseeded pair of Roger Wassen of the Netherlands and Slovakia’s Igor Zelenay.

Ullyett and Soares moved into yesterday’s third round match against Wassen and Zelenay after beating Britons Alex Bogdanovic and James Ward 6-2, 6-4, 5-7, 6-3 in round two at the weekend.

Bogdanovic and Ward were unseeded.

The winners of last night’s third round tie between Ullyett/Soares and Wassen/Zelenay will meet the top-seeded pair of Bob and Mike Bryan of the United States in the quarter-finals.

The Bryans eased into the last eight after posting a straight-sets 7-5, 6-3, 6-1 victory over Czechs Leos Friedl and David Skoch in the third round yesterday.

Friedl and Skoch were unseeded.