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Paris - Serena Williams and Petra Kvitova have survived big scares at the French Open on Thursday, both needing to come back from a set down to reach the third round.
Williams, 19 times a Grand Slam winner, survived an almighty fright before finally seeing off the challenge of world number 105 Anna-Lena Friedsam of Germany.
The 33-year-old, top-seeded American dropped the first set and faced break points against her unheralded 21-year-old opponent in the second, but she rallied just in time to go through 5-7, 6-3, 6-3.
She will next face two-time Australian Open champion Victoria Azarenka of Belarus who eased past Lucie Hradecka of the Czech Republic 6-2, 6-3.
The Belrusian, who has beaten Williams in the past, is back in business after losing much of last year to a bout of depression and injuries.
"I lost last year at the same stage (second round) and didn't want to do that again. It wasn't great but I won. I was battling with myself, but it was better in the last set," Williams said.
In cold, blustery conditions, fourth seed Kvitova made it through to the last 32 with a 6-7 (4/7), 6-4, 6-2 win over Spain's Silvia Soler-Espinosa.
But it was another nervy showing from the Wimbledon champion who was taken to the limit in her opening match against New Zealander Marina Erakovic.
The Czech Fed Cup winner, a semi-finalist at Roland Garros in 2012, dropped serve twice in the opening set before the more consistent Soler-Espinosa took the tie-break 7/4.
Kvitova was hanging on early in the second set, but finally started to find her range with her groundstrokes and broke to take a 4-3 lead.
That was short-lived, however, as Soler-Espinosa battled back onto level terms in the next game, but Kvitova took the next two to level the set scores.
The fourth seed took command early on in the deciding set and back-to-back breaks saw her safely past the post and into the third round.
"It was a tough match again. Second round of a Grand Slam is always difficult," she said.
Kvitova will go up against Irina-Camelia Begu for a place in the last 16, the Romanian 30th seed defeating Ana Konjuh of Croatia.
At one stage on the tournament's fifth day it looked like five out of the top 10 seeds could have departed the stage by the end of the day, third seed Simona Halep and sixth seed Eugenie Bouchard already having lost.
But as it turned out, only fifth seed Caroline Wozniacki was packing her bags for home after the Dane lost 6-4, 7-6 (7/4) to an impressive Julia Goerges of Germany.
Like Kvitova, German 10th seed Andrea Petkovic had stared defeat in the face only to bounce back from for a 4-6, 6-4 6-4 win over Lourdes Domnguez Lino of Spain.
Meanwhile, Sara Errani, who lost to Maria Sharapova in the 2012 final, also had to claw her way back from being down to defeat German youngster Carina Witthoeft 6-3, 4-6, 6-2.
There were slow-burning fireworks out on Court One where Svetlana Kuznetsova outlasted Francesca Schiavone in what turned out to be the third longest women's singles match to have been played in the history of the French Open.
It took them 3 hours 50 minutes before Schiavone staggered past the winning post and into the third round 6-7 (11/13), 7-5, 10-8, but even that was no match going up against the epic they played at the 2011 Australian Open.
Schiavone also won on that occasion 16-14 in the deciding set after 4 hrs 44mins -- the longest match to date in women's Grand Slam history.
Another seed to fall was No.12 Karolina Pliskova of the Czech Republic, who lost to Andreea Mitu of Romania.
Results from the fifth day of the French Open at Roland Garros on Thursday (x denotes seeded player):
Men
Second round
Novak Djokovic (SRB x1) bt Gilles Muller (LUX) 6-1, 6-4, 6-4
Thanasi Kokkinakis (AUS) bt Bernard Tomic (AUS x27) 3-6, 3-6, 6-3, 6-4, 8-6
Andrey Kuznetsov (RUS) bt Jurgen Melzer (AUT) 6-1, 5-7, 7-6 (7/0), 7-5
Rafael Nadal (ESP x6) bt Nicolas Almagro (ESP) 6-4, 6-3, 6-1
Andy Murray (GBR) bt Joo Sousa (POR) 6-2, 4-6, 6-4, 6-1
Nick Kyrgios (AUS x29) bt Kyle Edmund (GBR) - walkover
David Goffin (BEL x17) bt Santiago Giraldo (COL) 6-3, 4-6, 7-5, 6-2
Marin Cilic (CRO x9) bt Andrea Arnaboldi (ITA) 7-6 (7/3), 6-1, 6-1
Leonardo Mayer (ARG x23) bt Jerzy Janowicz (POL) 6-4, 6-4, 6-7 (1/7), 6-1
Pablo Andjar (ESP) bt Philipp Kohlschreiber (GER x22) 6-1, 7-6 (7/5), 3-6, 3-6, 6-4
Women
Second round
Serena Williams (USA x1) bt Anna-Lena Friedsam (GER) 5-7, 6-3, 6-3
Victoria Azarenka (BLR x27) bt Lucie Hradeck (CZE) 6-2, 6-3
Tsvetana Pironkova (BUL) bt Denisa Allertov (CZE) 6-3, 7-6 (7/2)
Sloane Stephens (USA) bt Heather Watson (GBR) 6-2, 6-4
Andrea Petkovic (GER x10) bt Lourdes Domnguez Lino (ESP) 4-6, 6-4, 6-4
Sara Errani (ITA x17) bt Carina Witthoeft (GER) 6-3, 4-6, 6-2
Irina Falconi (USA) bt Sesil Karatantcheva (BUL) 3-6, 6-1, 6-2
Julia Goerges (GER) bt Caroline Wozniacki (DEN x5) 6-4, 7-6 (7/4)
Petra Kvitova (CZE x4) bt Silvia Soler Espinosa (ESP) 6-7 (4/7), 6-4, 6-2
Irina Begu (ROM x30) bt Ana Konjuh (CRO) 6-2, 6-0
Francesca Schiavone (ITA) bt Svetlana Kuznetsova (RUS x18) 6-7 (11/13), 7-5, 10-8
Andreea Mitu (ROM) bt Karolna Plskov (CZE x12) 2-6, 7-6 (7/5), 6-4
