SERENA WILLIAMS continued her ominous form at Melbourne Park with a 6-3, 6-0 second-round drubbing over Nina Stojanovic to reach the third round of the Australian Open yesterday.

The 39-year-old maintained her unbeaten run since emerging from 14-day quarantine with a 6-3, 6-0 second-round victory in 69 minutes.

“l wasn’t thinking as much in the second, as I was in the first,” said Williams, who hit 27 winners. “I’m here to have fun and it’s great to be playing in front of a crowd.”

The 10th seed started with a sizzling backhand winner and maintained a vice-like grip over the Serb, breaking in the opening game of the second set and sealing victory with her sixth ace.

The 10th seed has been in strong form so far as she chases Margaret Court’s record Grand Slam tally of 24.

Also into the third round was the reigning French Open champion Iga Swiatek who took control and stopped the aggressive play of Camila Giorgi 6-2, 6-4 in 80 minutes.

With the victory, the No. 15 seed extended her match winning streak at the majors to nine, dating back to the start of her life-changing run on the clay courts of Paris.

Seven-time Grand Slam winner Venus Williams hobbled out of the Australian Open after a straight-sets loss to Italian qualifier Sara Errani.

With Errani leading 5-1, Williams stumbled during a move for an shot by the Italian. The former world No. 1 then immediately asked for medical attention and looked in agony. She played on with her right ankle strapped but was noticeably hampered and handed the game over eventually, departing from her record 21st appearance at Melbourne Park.

On the men’s side, Novak Djokovic rose to the challenge to claim a galvanizing 6-3 6-7(3) 7-6(2) 6-3 win against Frances Tiafoe.

Tuesday’s matches saw Rafael Nadal and women’s No. 1 Ash Barty move to round two. Nadal beat Serbia’s Laslo Dere, 6-3, 6-4, 6-1, while Barty powered through Montenegrin Danka Kovinic, 6-0, 6-0.(SD-Agencies)