Venus Williams got back into the swing again after an injury layoff with a straight sets win over Australian No.1 Alicia Molik in the $US585,000 ($A752,000) WTA Dubai Open.

Former world number one Williams, the second seed here, came away a 6-3, 6-4 winner in her second round tie against the unseeded 23-year-old Molik and next meets the winner of the tie between Russian teenager Svetlana Kuznetsova and Germany's Anca Barna.

Williams withdrew from last week's event in Antwerp because of a strained lower right leg suffered in Tokyo three weeks ago.

She had returned to competitive tennis at last month's Australian Open following a six-month lay-off caused by an abdominal injury sustained at Wimbledon and crashed out in the third round to Lisa Raymond.

"I haven't had to have surgery, so in a way I'm fortunate. But I have had injuries that are hard to heal," said Williams.

"I think it's possibly good to have some time off. I think having time off and returning to some kind of normality will lengthen my career.

"I got to wake up late, which was an extremely new experience. That was nice. I did my physiotherapy, of course, and did what training I could."

The 23-year-old said she had also been spending a lot of time at her interior design business in Florida.

Venus could not shed much light on her sister Serena, who has not played since beating her in the Wimbledon final last July.

Serena is due to make her comeback in Doha, Qatar, next week, after undergoing knee surgery.

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