VENUS IN ASCENDANCY AND ECLIPSING RECORDS
WHEN her work was done and her first trip to the US Open semi-finals since 2010 secured, if just barely, Venus Williams sat in her sideline chair and beamed.
Williams reached her third major semi-final of the season – something she last did 15 years ago – by edging two-time Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova 6-3, 3-6, 7-6 yesterday to a soundtrack of thunderous partisan support under a closed roof at Arthur Ashe Stadium in New York.
“It definitely felt like a special match. No easy moments, not easy to hold serve or break serve,” Williams said. “This match meant a lot to me, obviously, playing at home and, of course, it being a major.”
The 37-year-old Williams, who won titles at Flushing Meadows way back in 2000 and 2001, trailed 3-1 in the third set before digging out of the hole with a little help – Kvitova’s eighth double-fault handed over the break that made it 3-all. And Kvitova’s ninth double-fault got Williams to match point in the tie-breaker.
“Sometimes you have opportunities, and sometimes you take them and you don’t, but it’s not like you get opportunity after opportunity,” Williams said. “You have to take the ones you have.”
The victory ensured the seven-time grand slam tournament champion became the oldest semifinalist in US Open history and will also return to the world top five for the first time since January 2011. She will face unseeded Sloane Stephens in the first allAmerican women’s semi in New York since 2002.
Stephens advanced with a 6-3, 3-6, 7-6 win over Latvia’s Anastasija Sevastova.