Serena Williams beat an apparent case of dizzinesss with a tablet during a second-set on-court doctor's visit at the French Open, recovering enough to advance into the fourth round over Russian Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 6-1, 1-6, 6-2 on Saturday.
The American top seed played through her episode to advance and prevented her sister Venus from having a chance at seizing back the number one WTA ranking. Had Serena failed to advance, Venus could have taken over by winning the title.
Against the 29th-ranked Pavlyuchenkova, Williams dropped the second set after sweeping the first. In the third, the American called upon her reserves to advance on a second match point with a return at the feet of her opponent.
Williams has reached the third round or better in all ten of her Goland Garros appearances, and won the clay Grand Slam in 2002.
Russian Nadia Petrova ended the popular run of new French tennis darling Aravane Rezai, the Madrid champion, 6-7 (2-7), 6-4, 10-8 in a match which began on Friday evening.
Jarmila Groth reached her best career Grand Slam level as she moved to the fourth round through victory in an all-Australian battle over Anastasia Rodionova 6-3, 5-7, 6-2.
Daniela Hantuchova beat 16th seed Yanina Wickmayer 7-5, 6-3.
On the men?s side, a lack of preparation finally caught up with Andy Roddick who exited to Russian Teimuraz Gabashvili 6-4, 6-4, 6-2.
Roddick came to Paris without an official clay match in hand after falling ill in Madrid, which had been set as his only tune-up for the major.
The former number one had said all week that his luck would sooner or later run out and he had no huge expectations. "It was a tough matchup for me in these conditions," said the American who will head immediately to London to start his grass season with a bit more preparation.
"He has pretty big swings and gets good length on the ball. I wasn't able to penetrate the court quite as well. He was getting in control of the rallies most of the day. He got the best of me, and he was getting the best of me in 70 per cent of the points as far as the way they were constructed." Gabashvili, ranked 114th, ran his Roland Garros record to 4-2 with the straightforward upset, with Roddick limited to four aces and 15 winners. His opponent, by contrast, struck 58 winners and saved all three of the break points he faced.
Russian 11th seed Mikhail Youzhny completed a match interrupted the night before by darkness, defeating Serb Viktor Troicki 2-6, 7-6 (7-4), 6-2, 6-3.
