Title favourites Iga Swiatek and Elena Rybakina ease into French Open third round

Two of the French Open title favourites are safely through to the third round after Iga Swiatek and Elena Rybakina both secured comfortable straight-set wins on Thursday.

World No 1 and defending champion Swiatek defeated American Claire Liu 6-4, 6-0, while fourth seed and Wimbledon winner Rybakina eased past Czech teenager Linda Noskova 6-3, 6-3.

Swiatek, who also won last year's US Open, made it back-to-back straight-set wins in Paris and sealed victory in style by winning every game in a dominant second-set display against her 102nd-ranked opponent. She will play China's Wang Xiyu next.

The Pole said: “It's not easy especially when we're constantly switching sides, one time playing with the wind and one time against, so I really needed to adjust that but I'm pretty happy that I managed to play the second set a little bit better and learn from the first set."

Rybakina, who also reached this year's Australian Open final, continued her improved form on clay following victory in last week's Rome Masters by making it eight wins on the trot.

It was also the world No 4's 30th win of the year with only Melbourne champion and world No 2 Aryna Sabalenka securing more with 31 victories.

11.1 - Following a 6-4 6-0 win over Claire Liu, Iga Swiatek has now surpassed Steffi Graf (10.7%) for percentage of sets in women's singles Grand Slams won with a 6-0 scoreline, at 11.1% (17/153) - min. 100 sets played. Dominant.#RolandGarros | @rolandgarros @WTA @WTA_insider pic.twitter.com/DnjuwSXVON

“I cannot say that here it’s easy for me. It’s still every match getting better and better,” said Rybakina, who will now face Sara Sorribes Tormo of Spain. “I think that, first of all, my first WTA win [in 201] was on clay, so from that point I