Venus Williams used a good night's sleep to spare herself from a French Open nightmare in the second round on Thursday.

The third seed's second-round tussle was suspended on Wednesday due to bad light after she had lost the first set. She returned to save a match point before crawling over the finishing line with a 6-7, 6-2, 7-5 win over Czech Lucie Safarova (in the picture).

"I was very angry. I really wanted that tiebreaker. She just came up with shot after shot, on the line, deep, hard, you know the best shots she could hit," said Williams. "I was pretty upset. But I wound down ... (and today) I felt very good."

Her sister Serena, who had rated her display in the previous round as "junior tennis" enjoyed an easier outing on Thursday with a 6-2 6-0 destruction of Spaniard Virginia Ruano Pascual.

Two days after Serena needed nine match points to huff and puff into round two, Venus saved one against Safarova.

Safarova, no stranger to upsets having beaten then holder Amelie Mauresmo at the 2007 Australian Open, looked to have one foot in the next round on match point at 5-4 in the third.

But the American threw everything in her arsenal on the next point and stayed alive with a thumping forehand winner.

Two games later, the seven-times grand slam champion streaked ahead to serve out the match to love.