American Venus missed much of last year with injury and had been hoping to break into the world's top 16 by the start of the French Open [ Images ], which starts on Sunday.

The 26-year-old is ranked 29th but had dropped as low as 71 after wrist and knee injuries.

Rezai will meet American Meghann Shaughnessy in the quarter-finals.

In other second-round action, second seed Elena Dementieva [ Images ] of Russia [ Images ] beat Croatian Jelena Kostanic Tosic 6-3 6-3 to reach the quarter-finals, where she will play Colombia's Catalina Castano.

Dementieva, ranked 14th in the world, said at the start of this month she had considered retirement after suffering a stress fracture of three ribs while working with a new physical trainer in Moscow [ Images ].

Swiss third seed Patty Schnyder [ Images ] beat American Vania King [ Images ] 6-4 6-1 and will face fifth-seeded Ukrainian Alona Bondarenko in the quarter-finals.

Number one seed Maria Sharapova [ Images ] and Poland's Agnieszka Radwanska [ Images ] will contest the other quarter-final.