How far can vintage Venus Williams go?

Venus Williams has had a few stages in her career. As she broke into the game as the senior Williams sister, she seemed set to dominate women's tennis. Then, as Serena steadily usurped her, she dropped in and out of the game with injuries in 2003 to 2006.

She then had to overcome Sjogren's Syndrome, an autoimmune disease which would have been more than capable of ending her career for good, but she managed to fight back. Now, she is the oldest women in many of the tournaments, but at 36, she is still capable of causing an upset and using her experience to trouble any opponent. She made short work of her most recent victim on Wednesday.

Really, though, it is astonishing that in an increasingly physical and attritional game, she has overcome injury and illness to still compete at the highest level. Even she acknowledges how much of a struggle it can be at times.

Williams also seemed a little frustrated about having to talk about her age after every match, saying: "I have to talk about this every interview. I've played some of the greats. It's an honour and privilege to start that young and play this old."

Her last major title came in 2008, but she won the 2014 Qatar Total Open, re-entered the top 10 in 2015, and triumphed with her sister in the 2016 doubles at Wimbledon, amongst other successes.

Slim. She's ranked at 17 in the world, which represents how she is able to compete with some success at the majors and pick up minor tournament victories along the way, but she's now well out of the running for the Grand Slams. Her sister, Serena, is a couple of years her junior but well ahead of her on the court, now. Angelique Kerber, ranked number 1, is the other favourite for the tournament.

She should get past the next round, at least. In the fourth round, the strongest opponent she could meet would be Monica Puig, rated 29th in the world, and she'd then be likely to take on Svetlana Kuznetsova, who would be the favourite for that tie.

Saying she needs to be 'careful' suggests that she may be playing within herself, which is a handicap against all but the weakest opponents. She's already dropped out of the doubles tournament with her sister due to an injury worry.

As well as wrist and back problems that she's had in the past, she's now managing an injury to her shoulder.

Weirdly, despite her longevity, she managed to involve herself in an exchange of professed ignorance between herself and her third round opponent, Duan Ying-Ying. Venus said, "I don't know anything about her. I have never seen her play. Zero, like zero," and in response Ying-Ying claimed she had never seen Williams play, which seems... unlikely.