TENNIS - French Open: Serena Williams easily sees off Caroline Garcia in second round

Serena Williams breezed into the third round of the French Open after a crushing 6-1 6-2 victory over Caroline Garcia.

French prospect Garcia gave Maria Sharapova a huge scare in the second round two years ago but there was no hint of an upset this time as a dominant Williams extended her winning run to 26 matches.

Garcia was completely overwhelmed at the start of the first set as her opponent raced into an ominous 5-0 lead, but the 19-year-old did eke out a service hold just in time to avoid a 'bagel'.

Williams quickly closed it out, however, before reasserting her dominance by breaking again at the first opportunity in the second set.

That did not prevent Garcia's confidence from continuing to grow and she traded with Williams from the baseline to register two straight service holds in the third and fifth games of the set.

But her mini-revival ended in the seventh game when Williams broke for a fourth time in the match and saw out a routine service hold to complete the win.

"It's important for me to win easily," she said. "It's also important for me to play well. If I play well, it will bode well for me at Roland Garros."

Williams' third-round opponent will be No 26 seed Sorana Cirstea, who defeated Johanna Larsson 6-1 6-4.

Meanwhile, Caroline Wozniacki's miserable run of form continued as she was dumped out of the tournament after Bojana Jovanovski claimed a 7-6 (7-2) 6-3 victory over the former World No 1.

Jovanovski was rewarded for her greater aggression as she struck 33 winner compared to just 13 for the 10th-seeded Dane, who has not progressed beyond the quarter-finals of any tournament since the middle of March.

There were no such problems for last year's finalist Sara Errani, who eased to a 6-1 6-1 victory over Yulia Putintseva. Errani's doubles partner Roberta Vinci also made it through to round three after grinding out a 6-4 4-6 6-2 win against Galina Voskoboeva.