French Open Day 7 Women's Review

Serena Williams fought off sickness and a doughty opponent to reach the last-16 of the French Open.

The world number one was suffering from cold and was forced to scrap all the way to a 6-1 1-6 6-2 win over Russian Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in one hour 48 minutes.

Williams will play Shahar Peer in round four after the 18th seed ended the run of French hope Marion Bartoli, winning 7-6 (9/7) 6-2.

Sister Venus, meanwhile, will take on Nadia Petrova after the Russian completed a bad day for the hosts by finally sending Aravane Rezai packing.

Nineteenth seed Petrova and Rezai (15) saw their epic third-round match postponed at 7-7 in the decider late last night.

Both players arrived on Philippe Chatrier this afternoon having wasted three match points and a quick finish looked unlikely when they were each broken in their opening service games.

But Rezai dropped serve again and Petrova held her nerve to seal a 6-7 (2/7) 6-4 10-8 win.

Rezai revealed afterwards she had a major comedown after last night's exploits.

"This morning, I was very tired, especially mentally, because yesterday there was a lot of people, a lot of emotion and the crowd was amazing," she said.

"It takes energy. So this morning I was a little bit without energy."

There were also wins for Daniela Hantuchova (23), who upset Yanina Wickmayer (16), and Yaroslava Shvedova, who ousted a second seeded player with a 6-2 4-6 6-0 victory over Alisa Kleybanova (28).

Shvedova will now play Jarmila Groth, who beat fellow Australian Anastasia Rodionova 6-3 5-7 6-2.