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NEW YORK -- Nineteen years ago, Venus Ebony Starr Williams wandered into her first US Open draw and, at the age of 17, managed to reach the final. She lost there to a 16-year-old kid named Martina Hingis.But while Hingis would retire from singles after the 2007 season, Williams kept on going. And going.On Tuesday afternoon, at the age of 36, when she stepped onto the court at Arthur Ashe Stadium, there was a leap into tennis history. It was Venus 72nd appearance in a Grand Slam singles main draw, which surpassed the Open era record of fellow American Amy Frazier. At Wimbledon, Williams broke the mens record of 70, by Fabrice Santoro, and reached the semifinals, her best major performance in six years.Hows that for slamming those tennis balls grandly?Im grateful and Im blessed, Venus said of her milestone. All Im hoping for is just health, that I can keep that record going. I dont know when Im going to stop playing. I dont have plans now. Im playing too well to be thinking about stopping. I appear to be getting better each and every month. So Id like to make that record hard for someone to break.A year ago, she made the quarters here, losing to sister Serena. In fact, the only real context for the quality and quantity Venus still produces comes from Serena, who is 15 months younger -- and remains the worlds No. 1-ranked player.On Thursday, Venus Williams eventually handled Kateryna Kozlova, 6-2, 5-7, 6-4, but she may have turned 37 during the match. The running time: 2 hours and 42 drenching minutes, the longest womens match so far at this years Open.The final result wasnt exactly surprising; Venus is 18-0 in first-round matches here at the US Open, one behind all-time leader Chris Evert.Nice, Venus said, laughing, when the statistic was relayed to her during an on-court interview. Im grateful for that record.On some level, she should be grateful that Kozlova didnt serve a tad better. Venus broke Kozlova in eight of 15 service games, the difference in the match.Williams was the living definition of hit-or-miss, with 46 winners and 63 unforced errors.Yeah, today I had to hit a lot of balls, she said. Hopefully that will help me going forward when I get into some tough spots. Im going to try to keep that momentum.Venus had never played the 22-year-old Ukrainian before, but it was her 14th career match against a player named, in some shape or form, Kateryna. There have been seven different ones over the years, from Katarina Studenikova (1998) to Katarina Srebotnik (1999) to Ekaterina Makarova (2010) to Catherine Bellis earlier this year.Its been five years since Venus disclosed that she suffers from Sjogrens syndrome, an autoimmune condition that reduces her energy level and prevents her from practicing as much as she would like.As the oldest woman in the draw, she is playing in her 18th US Open, the most among active players. Its hard to believe she won back-to-back titles in 2000 and 2001.Venus is the No. 6 seed in this tournament, meaning only five players have demonstrated a consistent ability to be better over the course of the past year. Shes listed at 6-foot-1, but three-time Grand Slam singles champion Lindsay Davenport swears Venus is 6-3. That gives her enough leverage to continue hitting powerful serves and groundstrokes with enormous depth.Her half of the court still looks smaller than the other side.However, there have been a few concessions to age:Sometimes a half-step slow moving forward, Venus isnt always positioned properly to hit her trademark volleys.Nerves and double faults creep into her service games, making her more vulnerable to breaks.On long rallies, Venus groundstrokes are typically the ones that break down, especially the forehand.Against Kozlova, Venus saw her serve broken six times and threatened numerous others. She was up a set early, and up 3-0 and 5-2 in the third, before locking it down.Kozlova, a solid defender, played quite credibly, despite the fact that she has yet to win a Grand Slam main-draw match. She has never beaten anyone ranked higher than No. 39.In the changeover after the first game, Venus started back onto the court but turned to pick up a towel. Kozlova was already into the narrow gap between the net post and the umpires chair, but stopped abruptly and might have even taken a half-step back to allow Venus to pass.Such is the deference due her from a young player.Julia Goerges, Venus second-round opponent, or No. 10 seed Karolina Pliskova -- who could await in the fourth round if Venus gets that far -- might not show that kind of respect.When Kozlovas last backhand found the net, Venus unleashed one of her eternal Mona Lisa smiles and slowly raised her fist.Once youre at this level, everyone can play, she said. Its always hard. Its never easy. Cheap White Jordan 1 . 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NEW YORK -- In a story Aug. 13 about NBCs coverage of the Olympics, The Associated Press, relying on information provided by a publicist, reported erroneously that the online subscription content service Fullscreen made a 10-episode sports docuseries, Keeping Score, on the U.S. womens soccer team. The series is only six episodes.A corrected version of the story is below:A memorable daytime soccer game for NBCThe U.S. womens soccer teams unexpected loss made for some memorable moments for NBCBy DAVID BAUDERAP Television WriterNEW YORK -- The non-stop nature of soccer helped and hindered NBCs Arlo White and Kate Markgraf in their coverage of the U.S. womens team, which lost to Sweden on penalty kicks Friday and was bounced from the Olympics.The USA are distraught, White said, describing the aftermath of Lisa Dahlkvists deciding penalty.He expertly built the tension throughout the broadcast and reflected the significance of the three-time defending Olympic champions and defending World Cup winners heading home without a medal. White and Markgraf caught a bit of soccer gamesmanship before the last penalty kick, when U.S. goalkeeper Hope Solo changed gloves to make Dahlkvist wait a little while and think about her shot.There were two huge moments right before the penalty kicks when the Americans and then the Swedes had goals disallowed on what appeared to be questionable offside calls.Asked to take a stand on Lotta Schelins disallowed goal for Sweden, Markgraf hedged. The refs call appeared wrong, she said, but I do need to take another look at the play.She never got that chance. The soccer clock keeps ticking. When the extra time period ended shortly thereafter, NBC switched to a round of commercials and the controversial calls were not re-examined. Contrast that to an American football game, when theres enough downtime after a close call to see about a dozen replays.One other thing: The soccer teams loss -- and Solos subsequent sour grapes remark that the Swedish team was a bunch of cowards -- was the biggest Olympics story on Friday, at least from an American perspective. It deserved more than a minutes recap on NBC just before midnight.POLAROID MOMENT: Superb prep work by NBC was on display shortly after Joseph Schooling of Singapore upset Michael Phelps in the 100-meter butterfly. The network flashed a picture of a 13-year-old Schooling meeting Phelps, his hero, in 2008 -- amusing even a gracious Phelps. Phelps took a backseat to the other American swimmers on Thursday. Katie Ledecky cruised in the 800-meter freestyle, Maya Dirado stretched just far enough to win the 200-meter backstrokke and, at the ripe old age of 35, Anthony Ervin won gold in the 50-meter freestyle, repeating his victory from the 2000 Olympics.dddddddddddd In the intervening years, Ervin admitted to drifting. He was on my couch for awhile, said NBC analyst Rowdy Gaines.WATER-LOGGED: Yes, it appears some NBC viewers wont be sorry to see the Olympic pool shut down. NBC Olympic slogan: every four years the worlds greatest athletes gather to witness a 7-day swim meet, tweeted Allen Tyger, who describes himself as a college minister from Missouri.QUOTE: Team USA played like it was a Thursday night in Milwaukee in February. Totally uninspired. -NBC basketball analyst Fran Fraschilla, describing the teams tight 94-91 victory over Serbia.Milwaukee, are you listening?MAN-BUN IS BACK: It was almost sadistic, NBC flashing yet another picture of Hungarian swimmer Katinka Hosszus histrionic husband, this team after she won silver behind Dirado. Were they trying to prove some kind of point after being criticized earlier in the games for giving Shane Tusup too much credit for Hosszus victories? Another question: Has he changed his shirt since arriving in Rio?BAD TIMING: The online subscription content service Fullscreen launched in April and made one of its big projects a six-episode sports docuseries, Keeping Score, showing the backstage life of the U.S. womens soccer team, partially from the perspective of Hope Solo. Oops. Only two episodes had been made available before the teams quarterfinal loss, capped by Solos bad sportsmanship. Whos going to be interested now? You watched the game and know the outcome, said Ashley Kaplan, Fullscreens head of content production. But you have no idea what happened in the hotel room afterwards.JONESIN: Saturday Night Lives Lisa Jones has made it to Rio de Janeiro. She was spotted at the Kerri Walsh Jennings and April Ross beach volleyball match.RATINGS: NBCs Thursday prime time, which featured gold-medal performances from American gymnast Simone Biles, swimmer Simone Manuel and, of course, Phelps, reached 31.2 million, the Nielsen company said. That was the second highest viewership of the Rio de Janeiro Games so far, and ticked up to 33 million when online streaming and NBCSNs prime-time telecast are added in. NBC still hasnt topped its record-setting London Games from 2012, however, which had 36.8 million for the corresponding night.---Follow David Bauder at twitter.com/dbauder. His work can be found at http://bigstory.ap.org/content/david-bauder ' ' '