Venus bundled out of French Open

"Always a win against Lleyton is very good news," said Nadal, who was trying to become the only person to win five straight French Open titles. "You must be playing well."

Ivanovic, who lost in the 2007 French Open final before winning last year, has conceded only eight games since being taken to a tiebreaker in her opening match.

"(The) score doesn't indicate how hard I had to work for some points," said Ivanovic, a former No. 1. "She started playing much, much better in the second set, and started hitting the ball much heavier. I just played really good and stayed in the moment and did what I had to do out there."

Safina, the women's No. 1, defeated Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova of Russia 6-2, 6-0.

Safina, trying to win her first Grand Slam title after losing in the final at Roland Garros last year and in the Australian Open final this year, has lost only four games in three rounds.

"When I broke her, I started to play much more aggressive, and then I was dominating," Safina said. "Once you break, it's easier to go for your shots and to be much more aggressive on the court."

Novak Djokovic reached the third round in the men's tournament, quickly completing his suspended match against Sergiy Stakhovsky of Ukraine 6-3, 6-4, 6-1.

Fourth-seeded Djokovic won the first two sets on Thursday before darkness stopped play. He broke Stakhovsky to open the third set and had little trouble the rest of the way.

"It's not pleasant when you don't finish a match in one day," Djokovic said. "But I was lucky to come back and be two sets up."

Djokovic won his only Grand Slam at the 2008 Australian Open, but the Serb has reached at least the semifinals at all four major tournaments.

Third-seeded Andy Murray advanced to the fourth round for the first time at Roland Garros when Janko Tipsarevic of Serbia retired with a hamstring injury while trailing 7-6 (3), 6-3.

"The back muscle of the right leg started to fall apart," Tipsarevic said. "I was starting to feel it at the start of the match, even though I was winning 5-2. I don't think the leg was the reason why I lost the first set, even though I had two breaks up and two set points."

Juan Carlos Ferrero, the 2003 French Open champion, fell in the second round to No. 29 Philipp Kohlschreiber of Germany 6-4, 2-6, 6-4, 6-7 (3), 6-3 in another match suspended by darkness on Thursday.

No. 8 Fernando Verdasco of Spain, No. 10 Nikolay Davydenko of Russia, No. 12 Fernando Gonzalez of Chile and No. 13 Marin Cilic of Croatia also reached the fourth round.

In upsets, seventh-seeded Gilles Simon of France was eliminated by No. 30 Victor Hanescu of Romania 6-4, 6-4, 6-2, and No. 12 David Ferrer of Spain lost to No. 23 Robin Soderling of Sweden 6-7 (5), 7-5, 6-2, 7-6 (5).

AP