Williams sisters power on at Roland Garros

The defending champion needed just over an hour to complete her 6-2 6-1 victory on Court Suzanne-Lenglen, setting up a third-round clash with Kristina Mladenovic.

It was a good day for the Williams family as Serena's sister Venus also advanced, the ninth seed beating Louisa Chirico by the same score.

Dominika Cibulkova's match was not so straightforward, though, as the 22nd seed had to win a decider against Ana Konjuh, while Andrea Petkovic was the only seed not to progress – beaten by Yulia Putintseva.

SERENA OUTCLASSES PEREIRA

It was business as usual for Serena as she was rarely troubled by Pereira, the top seed's varied arsenal too much for her Brazilian opponent.

The American fired down five aces and 31 winners on her way to round three and when she opted to approach the net she converted 77 per cent of the points.

IVANOVIC THRIVING IN PARIS

For a second successive year Ana Ivanovic showed her love of the clay with an impressive performance against Kurumi Nara to reach round three.

The 14th seed has had her best grand slam results in Paris with victory in 2008, runner-up a year earlier and a semi-final finish 12 months ago.

Ivanovic held off three set points in the opener before moving ahead, but she had fewer problems in the second as she eased through 7-5 6-1.

BOUCHARD REVIVAL COMES TO A HALT

The signs had been positive for Eugenie Bouchard after she breezed past Laura Siegemund in round one and when the Canadian won the opening three games against Timea Bacsinszky her progress look set to continue.

However, the 2014 semi-finalist could not maintain it and went on to lose 10 successive games as the eighth seed prevailed 6-4 6-4.

"Very disappointing, I think I lost a little bit of focus," Bouchard said. "It's unacceptable to lose 10 games in a row in a match. What's disappointing the most is my game feels good, my shots feel good, I feel good on the court."

MARIA QUESTIONS CORNET INJURY

Severe cramp and an apparent left thigh problem looked set to force Alize Cornet to retire at the start of her third set with Tatjana Maria, but the Frenchwoman battled through the pain to triumph.

However, her victory was overshadowed somewhat by Maria's refusal to shake hands at the end of the match, the German claiming Cornet had fabricated her injury to enable her to receive a medical time out for cramp.

"This is not fair play what she did," Maria is quoted as saying by L'Equipe. "A medical time-out is not allowed for cramping.

"She had a 15-minute medical break and at the end, it is she who told me that I was not playing fair. Why? Ask her, I have no desire to talk to her."