Serena overcomes illness to progress

A medical timeout helped Serena Williams recover from a second-set malaise to beat Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova.

World number one Williams lost five games in a row midway through her third-round match before calling on the tournament doctor for what appeared to be some kind of illness.

Despite continuing to move gingerly, the 28-year-old was able to eke out a 6-1 1-6 6-2 victory after one hour 48 minutes on an overcast Philippe Chatrier Court.

After spending just 55 minutes on Suzanne Lenglen Court in yesterday's 6-1 6-1 second-round win over Julia Goerges, Williams looked set for another rapid-fire victory when she raced through the first set.

Eyebrows were raised when she dropped serve for only the second time in the tournament in the opening game, but some typical power play saw her break right back before two double faults from Pavlyuchenkova helped the top seed to two more breaks and the set.

The Russian 29th seed ended her six-game losing streak at the start of the second set, yet there was no indication at that stage quite how badly Williams would disintegrate.

She surrendered her serve twice to gift 18-year-old Pavlyuchenkova a 5-0 lead before taking her medical timeout.

Williams, facing a third successive opponent she had never previously played, won the next game but lost the set as she continued to look rather unwell between points.

However, she rallied to force four break points in game two, saved three on her own serve in the next, before breaking at the first time of asking in game four and at the second in game six to seal the match.

French golden girl Aravane Rezai, the 15th seed, was finally sent packing by Nadia Petrova in an epic 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 19th seed Petrova held her nerve to seal a 6-7 (2/7) 6-4 10-8 win and set up a last-16 clash with Venus Williams.