Tennis: Ailing Serena perks up to claim victory

A listless top seed Serena Williams, suffering from an unspecified malady, made a brave stand to stay in the French Open in Paris last night after dropping a set to little-known Russian Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova.

Williams breezed through the first set 6-1 over the teenager before appearing to take ill during the second set, similarly won 6-1 by the Russian. During the set, Williams asked for help and was visited by a doctor on court.

She took some pills but still appeared lacking in energy and was not covering the court with her usual elan.

In the third and final set, Williams seemed to have perked up a little and took the first service game - then had three break points against the big-hitting Russian but could not convert them.

Again, she was unusually stationary in her play - often winning points when the ball was close to her but losing them when she was required to run; put under pressure by Pavlyuchenkova.

In the third game of the final set, Williams again held serve - but only after staving off three break points and then only because she managed to land her big serve to pull her out of trouble.

The Russian is just 18 and while unknown, is not without ability. Roland Garros is her 10th Grand Slam event though she has previously not gone further than the third round of this event last year and the third round of Wimbledon in 2008.

She is ranked 29th in the world and has a powerful forehand, which she used to good effect against the ailing Williams.

Pavlyuchenkova will be known to some New Zealand tennis fans - she started last season at the ASB Classic as the seventh seed where she lost to Aravane Rezai 6-2 6-3 in second round.

She avenged that by beating Rezai in the first round of the Sony Ericsson Open later last year but lost to eventual champion Victoria Azarenka 2-6 2-6 in the second round.

At the French Open last year, Pavlyuchenkova reached the third round before losing to World No 1 and compatriate Dinara Safina 6-2 6-0.

Pavlyuchenkova was aiming to keep the rallies long against the flagging Williams while the younger Williams sister went for her shots, trying to cut the rallies short.

In the fourth game, Williams regained some energy and footwork - and broke the Russian with her attacking game to lead 3-1. Her next service game took the lead to 4-1. Pavlyuchenkova held serve well, with some strong volleys, but couldn't contain Williams' booming serve in the next game.

At 5-2 down, Pavlyuchenkova toiled hard on her serve but couldn't stop Williams from taking the match 6-1 1-6 6-2 - even though the American was still clearly not in the best of health.