Venus says she's bored by tennis

She may be the hottest player in tennis but Venus Williams says she's in no rush to get back to the courts because the sport bores her stiff.

While most professional players travel and play for 11 months of the year, Williams only plays when she feels like it because it sends her crazy.

"Lots of players are able to play quite a few matches but if I would just do one thing in my life I would be terribly bored," the American said after reaching the fourth round of the Australian Open on Friday.

Williams played just 12 tournaments last year, half of what some of her top rivals play, and is planning another light program this year.

"I think that my schedule just mirrors my personality," said Williams, who also studies fashion design in her spare time.

"What I've got makes me happy and playing the amounts of tournaments that I've played so far has made me happy and for me that's what's best."

Williams fought back from a terrible start to overcome talented Slovakian Daniela Hantuchova 3-6 6-0 6-4 on Friday.

POOR PREPARATIONS

The outspoken American is bidding to win the event for the first time after her previous attempts were derailed by poor preparations.

She's taking it seriously this time, playing, and winning, a lead-up tournament, but her reluctance to play more events has become a source of frustration and fascination for tennis fans and sponsors the world over.

It has also cost her the number one ranking.

The 21-year-old has not lost a match since July last year and has won four of the past six grand slam events she has entered and picked up two Olympic gold medals.

Yet she has finished the last three years ranked third just because she doesn't play enough tournaments.

She won six of the 12 events she entered last year, but it was Lindsay Davenport, who went the whole year without a grand slam, who finished number one because she played 17 tournaments.

Williams' chances of winning this year could be scuttled by injury. She showed some signs of discomfort from the tendinitis in her left knee which flared before her second round match but said it wasn't bad enough to stop her from playing.

"You always go into a match after having a little nervous after having a scare. But I found that I could do quite a lot more than the other day so it was exciting for me."

SERVICE BREAKS

Hantuchova completely outplayed an error-prone Williams in the first set after breaking the reigning Wimbledon and U.S. Open champions' service twice.

But Williams snapped back to attention in the second set when Hantuchova's strong serve deserted her, winning eight games straight to gain an early advantage in the deciding third set.

But Hantuchova refused to give in and the pair swapped service breaks twice in the final set before Williams finally gained the decisive advantage in the ninth game and then served out the match after 107 minutes.

"I really enjoyed playing against her, she puts a challenge to you," said Williams, who plays 13th seed Magdalena Maleeva of Bulgaria in the fourth round.

"When you are winning easy things seem like a piece of cake and you don't really see your flaws but as long as there are players out there testing you and pushing you further it helps."