Venus Williams beats Stefanie Voegele to roll into the third round

ByGREG GARBER
January 17, 2017, 9:41 PM

— -- MELBOURNE, Australia -- Long lost in the wake of her sister Serena, 36-year-old Venus Williams keeps on keeping on -- to the point that we take her for granted.

Venus' 6-3, 6-2 victory over Swiss qualifier Stefanie Voegele on Wednesday in the second round of the Australian Open was her 233rd Grand Slam match win, a total that places her fifth on the all-time list. Only Martina Navratilova, Chris Evert, Serena and Steffi Graf have won more.

Naturally, the on-court interview featured a question about her longevity.

"I have to talk about this every interview," Venus said, citing battles with Navratilova and Graf. "It's been an honor and a privilege to start that young and play this old.

"I love being here. It's a great way to start the year. Awesome."

The consistency of this year's No. 13 seed is often overlooked. This is her 73rd consecutive appearance in the main draw of a major, the all-time Open record. And this marks Venus' 17th visit to Melbourne Park, tying her with Serena for the lead among active players.

Last year, Venus went out in the first round of the Australian Open, falling to then-unheralded Johanna Konta. Now, she contemplates a third-round meeting with the winner of Varvara Lepchenko versus Ying-Ying Duan.

Against the No. 112-ranked Voegele, Williams moved freely, despite the fact she is a full decade older than her opponent. In the end, her bigger, more precise strokes made the difference.

Venus broke Voegele's serve more times (five) than she held (four).

Later Wednesday, Venus was scheduled to play doubles with Serena, but they pulled out of their first-round match because of a right elbow injury to Venus. The Australian Open confirmed the withdrawal on social media.?

The Williams sisters also withdrew from their first-round doubles match in 2015 at Melbourne Park. They have won 14 Grand Slam doubles titles together, including four at the Australian Open.

No. 11 Elina Svitolina had a 6-4, 6-1 win over U.S. qualifier Julia Boserup to advance to a third-round match against No. 24 Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, a 6-2, 6-2 winner over fellow Russian Natalia Vikhlyantseva.

In another match, Alison Riske beat No. 20 Zhang Shuai 7-6 (7), 4-6, 6-1.

Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.