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By Richard Pagliaro | Tuesday January 17, 2017

 
Venus Williams

Venus Williams cruised into the Australian Open third round for the 13th time, then withdrew from her scheduled doubles match citing an elbow injury.

Photo credit: Mark Peterson/Corleve

Venus Williams eschews the wrist watch young sister Serena wears on court, but still showed precise time management skills today.

An energetic Venus belted 24 winners powering past Stefanie Voegele, 6-3, 6-2, to secure a spot in the Australian Open third round for the 13th time.

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Knowing she had a scheduled afternoon assignment with sister Serena for their opening doubles match on Court 2, Williams moved forward frequently trying to end points quickly.



About an hour after her singles win, Venus withdrew from the doubles citing an elbow injury.

"I was hoping I'd have the capacity to play both events here," Williams said. "But at this point, I need to be careful and just try to maintain myself.... I go and see the physios and they've been doing a great job."

It’s probably a wise decision given Williams will face 87th-ranked Chinese Ying-Ying Duan, who has yet to surpass the third round of a Grand Slam, with a trip to the fourth round on the line. Duan outdueled Varvara Lepchenko, 6-1, 3-6, 10-8.




The 13th-seeded Williams won 11 of 16 trips to net. In two tournament wins, Williams has attacked net 43 times and broken serve nine times.

The 112th-ranked Swiss scored three consecutive three-set wins in qualifying to reach the main draw then knocked off Kurumi Nara, 2-6, 6-2, 6-3 in round one. Voegele couldn’t consistently muster the pace of depth to hang with the heavier-hitting Williams from the baseline.


 

Queen Vee. 👑🐝 #VenusWilliams #AusOpen

A photo posted by Australian Open (@australianopen) on



Breaking twice in the first three games, Williams rolled out to a 3-0 lead. The 2003 finalist zapped her third ace holding for 5-3. Williams coaxed three errors to close the opening set with another service break.

The 36-year-old American broke for a 3-1 second-set lead and quickly consolidated for 4-1. She never looked back wrapping up a sharp win in one hour, 23 minutes.

Shelby Rogers' opening-round upset of fourth-seeded Simona Halep has opened this second quarter of the draw considerably. Should Williams defeat Duan she could potentially meet 29th-seeded Monica Puig in a fourth-round match of Olympic gold medal champions.


 

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