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Third seed Venus Williams found herself on the brink of defeat before rediscovering her touch to beat Czech Lucie Safarova 6-7 6-2 7-5 and reach the third round of the French Open.

The American, who saved a match point in the 10th game of the decider, will next face Hungary's Agnes Szavay, seeded 29th.

The match was interrupted by dusk at the end of the first set on Wednesday and upon resumption, seven-times Grand Slam winner Venus bombarded her opponent with a series of winners to level the contest on Suzanne Lenglen Court.

After saving a match point with a forehand winner, Venus broke in the 11th game with a service return winner and followed up on serve to wrap up the win on her first opportunity after two hours 30 minutes.

Serena Williams had a much easier time of it though and raced into the third round with a clinical 6-2 6-0 demolition of Spaniard Virginia Ruano Pascual.

Two days after blasting her first-round performance as "junior tennis" when she needed nine match points and three sets to end the challenge of Czech Klara Zakopalova, Serena turned on the style to demolish her opponent in 57 minutes.

The 10-times Grand Slam champion and second seed needed two match points to secure victory after the world number 133 pulled out a beautiful passing shot that even Serena watched in admiration on the first.

The American sealed the match when her powerful crosscourt backhand could only be smacked wide by her opponent. Serena will face Maria Jose Martinez-Sanchez in the next round after the Spaniard overcame Ukrainian Viktoriya Kutuzova 3-6 6-3 6-3.

Jelena Dokic left Roland Garros in a flood of tears after retiring hurt while leading by a set against fourth seed Elena Dementieva.

Dokic, appearing at her first French Open since 2004, appeared to pull something in her lower back at 2-2 in the second set and received treatment from the tournament trainer.

The former number four returned to break Dementieva despite crying between points.

With the score at 6-2 3-4 the Australian called it quits, sobbing uncontrollably into her towel while Dementieva came over to comfort her.

Dementieva will play another Australian Samantha Stosur next with Stosur enjoying a 6-3 4-6 6-4 win over Yanina Wickmayer 6-3 4-6 6-4.

Serbian fifth seed Jelena Jankovic fought off a late challenge from Magdalena Rybarikova to beat the Slovak 6-1 6-2.

The former world number one will face Jarmila Groth for a place in the fourth round, after the Australian saw off Colombia's Mariana Duque Marino 6-2 7-6(9).

The easy-looking scoreline did not reflect Jankovic's problems in a 54-minute second set where she struggled to outpace her 53rd-ranked opponent and had to stave off three break points.

Jankovic, a semi-finalist at Roland Garros last year, benefited from a Rybarikova double fault to wrap up the win in 82 minutes.

Tenth seed Caroline Wozniacki remained on course for a potential fourth round match up with Jankovic as she eased past American Jill Craybas 6-1 6-4.

The Dane will face Sorana Cirstea in the third round after the unseeded Romanian produced an impressive display to down French 21st seed Alize Cornet 6-3 6-2.

Svetlana Kuznetsova showed little mercy in a swift 6-0 6-2 hammering of Kazakhstan's Galina Voskoboeva to book her place in the third round.

The Russian seventh seed took just 19 brutal minutes to snap up the first set against the world number 81, who struggled to get her racket to many of her opponent's shots and even when she did often sent them into the net.

Voskoboeva merely delayed the inevitable by holding serve for the first time in the second game of the next set and even earned herself a break point in the fifth with a scorching forehand return down the line.

She missed her chance when she found herself stranded wrong-footed in the middle of the court.

The former US Open champion wrapped up the match in 49 minutes and will next face Melinda Czink after the Hungarian came through an epic clash to beat Austrian 28th seed Sybille Bammer 4-6 6-3 10-8.

Another seed who did not progress was Frenchwoman Marion Bartoli , who was left in tears after suffering a 6-3 7-5 loss to Italian Tathiana Garbin.

The 13th seed, who reached the fourth round of the tournament in 2007, the same year she went on to reach the final at Wimbledon, was comprehensively out-played by clay-court specialist Garbin and fell in just 88 minutes.

Garbin will next meet another Frenchwoman in the form of Virginie Razzano, after the world number 34 saw off Spanish 18th seed Anabel Medina Garrigues 6-2 6-2.

Canadian 24th seed Aleksandra Wozniak also advanced with a straight-sets 6-3 6-3 win over Croatian qualifier Petra Martic . Wozniak will now face Spain's Lourdes Dominguez Lino, who battled past American Alexa Glatch 7-6(0) 7-5.

Ukrainian Kateryna Bondarenko was forced to recover from a poor opening set to scrape past Australia's Olivia Rogowska 3-6 7-5 7-5 in two hours and 23 minutes.

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Reuters / Eurosport