“It was a little difficult to recover from that first set,” Williams said. “I’m used to beating people, 6-0, not used to my shots not going in and losing, 6-0.”

Williams did get a consolation prize later by teaming with her sister Serena to beat Szavay and Gisela Dulko in doubles.

Dinara Safina has been a more consistent achiever so far. In three matches, the top-seeded Safina has dropped only four games. On Friday, she disposed of the 27th-seeded Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova of Russia, a talented 17-year-old, by 6-2, 6-0, reeling off the last 10 games of the match and, at one stage, 14 straight points. Rafael Nadal also rolled, beating Lleyton Hewitt of Australia, 6-1, 6-3, 6-1. Nadal, the four-time defending champion, is 31-0 at Roland Garros and will face the powerful but erratic Robin Soderling of Sweden in the fourth round.

In other Round of 16 matches in Nadal’s half of the draw, Fernando Gonzalez of Chile will face Victor Hanescu of Romania, Nikolay Davydenko of Russia will face Fernando Verdasco of Spain and No. 3 seed Andy Murray of Britain will face the Croat Marin Cilic, who is in top form.

Safina will face the 57th-ranked Rezai, who managed to slide into a seat next to her father in time to see Safina close out the final game against Pavlyuchenkova.

In their previous match, in the second round in Miami this year, Rezai had also complained to the chair umpire about Larcher de Brito’s grunting on her way to a 6-1, 6-2 victory.

Larcher de Brito said no other player in her junior or nascent professional career had formally complained during a match against her. But according to tennis officials, Larcher de Brito was advised by a chair umpire during a match at this year’s tournament in Indian Wells, Calif., that she needed to tone down her grunting. Members of her camp were also advised that it was becoming a problem.