Two-time champion Venus Williams reached the second round of the US Open tennis championships on Monday with a 6-4, 6-3 victory over Russian Vesna Dolonts.
Williams, who won back-to-back titles at Flushing Meadows in 2000 and 2001, is unseeded this year thanks to the slide in her world ranking to 36.
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The American is without a title in 2011. She missed much of the first half of the year through injury and was playing her first match since a fourth-round exit at Wimbledon. Since then she had withdrawn from tournaments at Toronto and Cincinnati with a viral illness.
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