Evergreen Venus Williams has overcome a troublesome elbow complaint to end the Australian Open campaign of Swiss Stefanie Voegele in the second round at Melbourne Park.
The injury was serious enough to prompt Williams to pull out of the women's doubles, where she due to partner younger sister Serena in the opening round on Wednesday.
"I was hoping to have the capacity to play both events here, but at this point I just need to be careful and just try to maintain myself," said the 36-year-old.
"I go and see the physios, and they have been doing a great job."
Williams is now free to focus solely on the singles in her record 73rd grand slam campaign.
The 13th seed downed Voegele 6-3 6-2 to set up a clash in the round of 32 against Duan Ying-Ying, who saved two match points before ousting American Varvara Lepchenko in a marathon three-setter 6-1 3-6 10-8.
I don't know anything about her," said Williams of the 27-year-old Chinese.
"I have never seen her play. Zero, like zero.
"So I'm going to have to see how it goes and maybe get a scouting report in the warm-up when we hit for five minutes and see how it feels."
Williams is playing in her 73rd grand slam tournament, two more than the previous Open-era mark set by fellow American Amy Frazier.
She has won seven major singles titles, but the closest she has come to lifting the Australian Open crown was back in 2003, when she lost in the final to younger sister Serena.
She was rarely troubled by Voegele, who won her way into the main draw at Melbourne Park through qualifying.
Williams broke Voegele's serve on five occasions in a match that lasted one hour and 23 minutes, while only dropping her own serve once.
