Williams fired down seven aces, tallied 26 winners and broke serve on four occasions as she made light work of the world number 90.
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“I think I was really focused”, Williams said. “I was like, “Yay”.
World No 1 Serena Williams on Wednesday said she was eager for a rematch with Italian veteran Roberta Vinci, who crushed her hopes of a calendar Grand Slam at the US Open previous year.
The straightforward wins pleased the crowd at Rod Laver Arena, where early rain gave way to bright sun as attention refocused on tennis after the match-fixing controversy overshadowed the first two days.
Venus Williams, 35, was bounced from the 2016 Australian Open by an upstart who is 11 years her junior.
Zheng pressed hard but could not convert a handful of break points and dropped serve once again as Konta took the first set in 37 minutes. “To come back here and play my first match on Rod Laver is always very special as you always get those first little jitters out of the way”.
Elsewhere, 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.
“I think it would be silly to look at Venus’ age and somehow consider that as a reflection of her level”, said the 24-year-old.
Serena said she would be tapping up her sister for information about her next opponent, world number 69 Daria Kasatkina. Sharapova started her second round match right where she left off in the first, dominating Sasnovich for the whole match. “So, I mean, she’s definitely looking towards cracking that, for sure”.
“Before, my father never come to watch me play, this is first time he travels with me”.
Britain’s Johanna Konta caused a major upset at the Australian Open by beating eighth seed Venus Williams in straight sets.
Williams had a career comeback season in 2015, 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.
Federer, playing his 77th match here, beat Alexandr Dolgopolov 6-3, 7-5, 6-1 to preserve his record of always reaching the third round at Melbourne Park. “Especially when it’s in the hand and wrist area, it’s in the back of your mind even though you’re feeling it. I felt really good and confident today about it”.
“I managed to play the best tennis when I needed to”.
On the men’s side, No. 13 Milos Raonic followed up his win over Roger Federer in the final of the Brisbane International tune-up event with a 6-1, 6-4, 6-4 win over Lucas Pouille, and No. 32 Joao Sousa beat Mikhail Kukushkin 6-3, 6-4, 6-3.
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Murray revealed he has had his own doubts about the integrity of the sport: “I’ve heard about certain matches where something might have been going on”, he said.
