Serena storms into third round at Australian Open

Williams added a rare around-the-net shot to her repertoire as she steamrolled Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei 6-1 6-2.

Venus Williams has been fined $5,000 USA dollars (£3,500) for shirking post-match press duties following her Australian Open first-round defeat to Britain’s Johanna Konta.

Williams said: “She was definitely a tricky opponent, but it was a good match for me to play someone like that”.

In men’s singles, third-seeded Roger Federer of Switzerland dumped Alexandr Dolgopolov of Ukraine 6-3, 7-5, 6-1.

“When the draw came out and I saw who I was playing, I was like “well, I hope to stay out there more than an hour”, said the 24-year-old.

Williams had a career comeback last season, winning three titles, finding some consistency after a long struggle with illness and finishing the year in the top 10 for the first time since 2010.

Williams, 35, was enjoying a renaissance of form in the back half of 2015, but continued her poor start to 2016, losing to Konta in straight sets, 4-6, 2-6 at the Melbourne Park, reports Xinhua. “Yeah, I don’t know”.

Bouchard, coming off a long layoff late previous year after sustaining a concussion when she slipped and fell in a dressing room at the U.S. Open, reached the final in a warmup tournament at Hobart last week but ran out of steam against Radwanska.

Kateryna Bondarenko earned one of her biggest wins since returning from retirement after having a baby in 2013, beating two-time major victor and No. 23-seeded Svetlana Kuznetsova 6-1, 7-5.