PARIS — The pre-tournament shortlist of favourites for the French Open women's crown continues to shrink and for a while it looked as though the name of top seed Serena Williams would also vanish on Thursday.
Shortly after former world number one Caroline Wozniacki was knocked out by Julia Goerges, meaning the third, fifth and sixth women's seeds have all departed before round three, 33-year-old Williams stepped on Court Suzanne Lenglen to face unheralded 21-year-old German Anna-Lena Friedsam.
It looked like a mis-match but 105th-ranked Friedsam gave the 19-times grand slam champion a torrid time, taking the first set off the American before a nervy Williams recovered to scrape into the third round 5-7 6-3 6-3.