Julia Goerges beats former world No 1 Caroline Wozniacki at the French Open

Caroline Wozniacki was sent packing from the French Open and Serena Williams overcame a scare.

Former world No 1 and two-time US Open finalist Wozniacki became the third top-six seed to be knocked out at Roland Garros when she slumped to a 6-4 7-6 (7-4) loss on Court Philippe Chatrier to Julia Goerges.

Fifth-seed Wozniacki joins third-seeded Simona Halep as a second-round casualty, while sixth-seed Eugenie Bouchard was defeated in the first round.

"Today is very special as I haven't beaten a top-10 player for a long time," said the German, who is ranked 67 spots lower than the Dane.

"In the tiebreaker, I just told myself to be aggressive," she said. "It paid off in the end."

Goerges, who has now matched her best result in Paris, will face Ecuadorian-born American Irina Falconi for a place in the last 16 after she beat Sesil Karatantcheva from Bulgaria 3-6 6-1 6-2.

Wozniacki admits she has a mental block when she faces the German.

"I think especially on clay she has a way to make me feel like I'm not playing very well," she said.

"I think there are just some players that it's a tough match-up for you no matter the rankings, and some of them are easy match-ups no matter the rankings.

"Obviously she has given me trouble in the past and she gave me trouble again today so that kind of sucks.

"I would have liked to have been through to the next round, but I'm not."

British No 1 Heather Watson was also eliminated on Thursday - here are the details.

Williams and Kvitova fright

Serena Williams shockingly lost the opening set to world No 105 Anna-Lena Friedsam of Germany before rebounding to victory.

The 33-year-old, a 19-time Grand Slam winner, dropped the first set and faced break points against her unheralded 21-year-old opponent in the second, but she rallied just in time to go through 5-7, 6-3, 6-3.

"I lost last year at the same stage (second round) and didn't want to do that again. It wasn't great but I won. I was battling with myself, but it was better in the last set," Williams said.

Fourth-seed Petra Kvitova looked to be joining the exodus of women's seeds in Paris when she lost the first set against Silvia Soler-Espinosa of Spain.

However, the Czech Fed Cup winner, a semi-finalist at Roland Garros in 2012, dug deep to eventually reach the third round with a 6-7 (4-7) 6-4 6-2 victory.

"It was a tough match again. Second round of a Grand Slam is always difficult," she said after making 54 unforced errors in a patchy display on a chilly court Suzanne Lenglen.

The double Wimbledon champion will play either Ana Konjuh of Croatia or Irina-Camelia Begu of Romania for a place in the last 16.

Epic battle

In a battle of the former French Open champions, Francesca Schiavone has won an epic second-round match against Svetlana Kuznetsova on Court 1, with 13 breaks of serve in the third set, nine of them consecutive 6-7 (13-11) 7-5 10-8 in a match lasting a grueling three hours and 50 minutes.

At the 2011 Australian Open, Schiavone beat Kuznetsova in the longest women's match, by time, in Grand Slam history - a 6-4 1-6 16-14 marathon that lasted four hours and 44 minutes.