Serena Williams continues the defence of her French Open title with a second round clash against Gabrine Muguruza on Wednesday.

The world No 1 cruised past Alize Lim in the opening round and is not expected to have any trouble with 20-year-old Spaniard Muguruza either.

If Serena comes through she could set up a third-round meeting with sister Venus, who plays Anna Schmiedlova of Slovakia.

Venus is first up on Court Philippe Chatrier while Serena will play in the second match scheduled for Court Suzanne Lenglen.

Third seed Agnieszka Radwanska is also in action on Wednesday, going up against big-hitting Czech player Karolina Pliskova on Court One.

But perhaps the most eagerly-anticipated match on Wednesday is the meeting between 2012 champion Maria Sharapova and dangerous Bulgarian Tsvetana Pironkova.

Sharpova’s groundstrokes should prove too powerful on the clay of Roland Garros but Pironkova has shown she is capable of upsetting big names on the grand slam stage before.


Big names

Other notable players in action on the women’s side of the draw include French hope Alize Cornet, eighth seed Angelique Kerber and 2010 runner-up Samantha Stosur.

In the men’s singles, second seed Novak Djokovic is likely to have the crowd against him when he faces Frenchman Jeremy Chardy on Philippe Chatrier.

Chardy showed he can upset the odds when he beat Roger Federer at the Rome Masters recently and is an adept player on clay courts.

But it is Jo-Wilfried Tsonga who is most likely to give the home crowd on Roland Garros’ main court something to cheer about when he takes on Austrian veteran Jurgen Melzer.

Federer, meanwhile, faces unheralded Argentine Diego Sebastian Schwartzmann on Suzanne Lenglen.

Schwartzmann, who has never been ranked inside the world’s top 100, came through the qualifying tournament but is not expected to put up much resistance against the 2009 champion.

Sixth seed Tomas Berdych and No 8 seed Milos Raonic are also in action on Wednesday, going up against Aleksandr Nedovyesov and Jiri Vesely respectively.