Former world No.1 Venus Williams outclassed Holland’s Arantxa Rus in straight sets to reach the second round of the Yarra Valley Classic in a busy weekend of Australian Open warm-up events.
The 40-year-old American never looked troubled as she broke serve twice to win 6-1 6-3.
American 13th seed Danielle Collins had an easy 6-3 6-3 win against Belgian Ysaline Bonaventure and Australia’s Daria Gavrilova easily beat Slovakian Viktoria Kuzmova 6-2 6-0 win in an hour.
Also advancing was Czech Republic’s Marie Bouzkova, who beat former US Open champion Samantha Stosur 6-2 6-0.
Unseeded Romanian Ana Bogdan beat Russian teenager Kamilla Rakhimova 6-2 6-2 to set up a date with Australian Ash Barty.
