Venus powers her way into fourth round

Venus Williams progressed into the fourth round of the French Open with a straight-sets win over Slovakian Dominika Cibulkova.

The second seed had a comfortable 6-3 6-4 win over her 26th-seeded opponent and took just under 43 minutes to complete the job.

Cibulkova matched Williams in the opening set until a double fault gifted the American a 5-3 lead.

Williams served out the first set but the second was level at 3-3 when Williams broke Cibulkova once again to assert her authority upon the match.

But Williams did not have it all her own way in the next game even though she raced 40-0 ahead. Cibulkova hit back to claim deuce before her opponent took her first advantage point to lead 5-3.

Cibulkova held service in the next game but Williams then served out the match for victory.

Williams faces a fourth-round appointment with the winner of the match between France's 15th seed Aravane Rezai and Russia's 19th seed Nadia Petrova.