Serena Williams and Andy Murray survived big scares on Thursday, advancing to respective last 32 after a fight, while No. 5 seed Caroline Wozniacki and Chinese Taipei's Lu Yen-Hsun were ousted at Roland Garros.

The top rated Williams, a 19-time major winner, dropped the first set and faced break points against her 21-year-old challenger before coming back to see off world No. 105 Anna-Lena Friedsam of Germany 5-7, 6-3, 6-3.

"I know I'm capable of playing great tennis, just haven't seen it yet," said the 33-year-old who suffered a second-round exit last year.

"I feel like one thing Venus always tells me: A win is a win, and as long as you live to survive the next day, you can always improve. I know my level is literally a hundred times better than I played today," she added.

Williams will next play Belarus' Victoria Azarenka as the two-time Australian Open champion eased past Lucie Hradecka of the Czech Republic 6-2, 6-3.

Murray, seeded the third, had not face real challenges at this year's French Open until Thursday's second round encounter against Portugal's Joao Sousa. The 28-year-old Scotsman overcame his little crisis to beat the first Portuguese Tour winner 6-2, 4-6, 6-4, 6-1.

What No. 1 seed Novak Djokovic survived from was an injury scare, as the Serb slipped in late second set before coming back from medical treatment on his right groin to beat Gilles Muller of Luxembourg 6-1, 6-4, 6-4.

Both Djokovic and Murray will take on young Australians for berths in the fourth round, with the former facing 19-year-old Thanasi Kokkinakis and Murray meeting 20-year-old Nick Kyrgios.

Also Czech Petra Kvitova had a fright before the fourth seed pulled back from one set down to overcome Spaniard Silvia Soler-Espinosa 6-7 (4), 6-4, 6-2 in the women's draw.

Fifth seed Wozniacki suffered more than a scare, however, but packed home after the Dane lost 6-4, 7-6 (4) to Julia Goerges of Germany.

Lu from Chinese Taipei was also sent packing after the last Asian player in the upper half of men's draw 5-7, 6-4, 6-4, 6-4.

Meanwhile, top seeds Sania Mirza and Bruno Soares of Brazil crashed out in the first round of the mixed doubles after losing 2-6, 2-6 to unseeded Anna-Lena Groenefeld and Jean-Julien Rojer.

Three women's doubles matches featuring Chinese players on Thursday saw Wang Yafan and Liang Chen both tumbled in their respective first-round play.

Wang partnering with Belgium's Yanina Wickmayer lost 6-3, 6-4 to American Madison Brengle and Germany's Tatjana Maria while Liang, together with Serb Bojana Jovanovski, was beaten by Frenchwoman Caroline Garcia and Slovenia's Katarina Srebotnik 6-2, 6-2.

Australian Open finalist Zheng Jie, paired with Chan Yung-Jan of Chinese Taipei, came out the only Chinese having won on Thursday, breezing past Canadian Gabriela Dabrowski and Alicja Rosolska of Poland 6-4, 6-1.

Elsewhere, defending champion Rafael Nadal joined Djokovic Murray and fellow Spaniard David Ferrer in the third round with a 6-4, 6-3, 6-1 easy win over compatriot Nicolas Almagro.

The nine-time Roland Garros "King", seeded just sixth this year, will next play Russian Andrey Kuznetsov after the latter ousted Austrian Jurgen Melzer 6-1, 5-7, 7-6 (0), 7-5.

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