Williams delighted to prove doubters wrong

Serena Williams today admitted she is taking great pleasure from silencing those who claimed she and sister Venus would never again hold the top two spots in the world rankings.

The Williams sisters arrived at this year’s French Open as officially the best two players in the world for the first time in seven years.

And so far at Roland Garros, both have done just about enough to justify their status, each winning their latest matches today.

Serena gave herself plenty of recovery time for her next match against 29th seed Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova by racing through her postponed second-round clash with Julia Goerges 6-1 6-1 in just 55 minutes on Suzanne Lenglen Court.

Asked afterwards about the rankings, the world number one said: “When I first found out we’d be number one and two again it was cool, because some people said we would never be number one and two again, and I was like, ’In your face’.

“Not only that, but we’re doing so well in doubles. We’re having so much fun at this time of my career and we just feel good. We’re doing the best we can and we’re enjoying every moment.”

Despite winning at a canter, Serena insisted there was plenty she could learn from her match.

“I can learn a lot,” she said. “Like, what am I doing today? Why aren’t all my matches like this? How can I get them to all be like that? Those are the questions that I ask and I try to answer.”

Her next test will come tomorrow against Pavlyuchenkova, who beat Jill Craybas 6-4 6-1.

Venus became the first woman through to round four after easing past 26th seed Dominika Cibulkova 6-3 6-4 on Philippe Chatrier Court.

The day began with three second-round matches in progress after yesterday’s play was blighted by rain.

Four-time champion Justine Henin extended her winning streak at Roland Garros to 23 matches and 39 sets by polishing off Klara Zakopalova 6-3 6-3.

The 22nd seed will now face Maria Sharapova in arguably the clash of the tournament so far after the Russian 12th seed also converted a one-set overnight lead into 6-3 6-3 success over Kirsten Flipkens.

Marion Bartoli (13) finished off her match against Olivia Sanchez with a 7-5 6-2 win.

In second-round clashes which started today, seventh seed Samantha Stosur beat Rossana De Los Rios 4-6 6-1 6-0, Daniela Hantuchova (23) got past Olga Govortsova 7-5 6-3 and Yanina Wickmayer (16) ousted Sybille Bammer 7-6 (7/4) 1-6 7-5.

But 25th seed Jie Zheng was dumped out 6-4 6-3 by Anastasia Pivovarova.