French Open results 2015: Serena Williams holds off upset, beats Victoria Azarenka in 3rd round

Serena Williams came close to an early exit at the 2015 French Open on Saturday, but she’s made it into the fourth round after holding off Victoria Azarenka in three sets, 3-6, 6-4, 6-2.

It was a very evenly matched first set between the pair, and Azarenka seemed to surprise Williams with incredible returns to earn a pair of breaks. Azarenka, despite eight unforced errors and three aces from Williams, won 12-of-23 receiving points. She turned things up precisely when she needed to and kept the pressure on into the second set.

Azarenka managed to score a break on Williams on the third game of the second set, and had Williams on her heels for the rest of the match. Williams started to look frustrated once she was down 3-1 in the second set and hit a pair of blazing serves, spiking Azarenka’s return about as hard as she’s ever hit a tennis ball before. Still, her accuracy wasn’t great throughout the set and she had to rely on Azarenka flat-out missing a surefire return to hold serve.

Things actually started looking up for Williams from there, as Azarenka was having trouble handling her raw power. She came close to getting a break of her own, but Williams committed a pair of unforced errors and Azarenka went up 4-2 in the second set. Williams followed that with a dominant service game to make it 4-3. Then things got even more interesting when she broke Azarenka to get back on serve. Williams went on to win the set and force a third.

Azarenka pulled off a pretty stunning reset at this point, breaking Williams with a dominant first set and putting herself up 2-0 by holding serve. Of course, the match stayed just as unpredictable as ever, with Williams taking the next two games to make it 2-2. It didn’t get any better for Azarenka from there, as she committed her own unforced errors and was broken the next time around. Azarenka lost all her steam at that point, and Williams broke her to finish out the set, and the match.

Williams, the tournament’s top seed and heavy favorite, had won 15 of the 18 matches that she’s played against Azarenka, the No. 27 seed. That also includes all three matches the pair have played on clay, and all eight matches the pair have played in the various Grand Slams. Azarenka wasn’t your typical 27 seed, however, as a former world No. 1 herself.

Williams advances to the fourth round, where she’ll face unseeded Sloane Stephens. That should be an interesting match, as Stephens has been looking great thus far, easily dispatching Tsvetana Pironkova in straight sets on Saturday, 6-4, 6-1. We’ve got other results from Saturday’s action here.