Stars align for graceful Venus
Semifinal breeze breaks British hearts . . . with sister as fuel
Venus ascending.
Placed again in the glittery firmament of a women’s final at the All England Club.
American born and ghetto bred but this is her indigenous tennis soil, these springy lawns where she first arrived as a gangly girl, cornrow beads a-clattering.
A mature woman now, hair thickly coiled into an elegant up-do.
Ripest player in the tournament, at 37 years of age.
Brushed aside two teenagers, a 20year-old, a 25-year-old and, on Thursday, the darling of British tennis, crushing a nation’s dreamy hopes that one of its own would lift the Wimbledon women’s trophy for the first time in four decades.
Instead, it will be Venus Williams and the Spanish-Venezuelan Garbine Muguruza going slugger-to-slugger on Saturday, a nine-time finalist versus a twotime finalist.
But the standing ovation Thursday, if not begrudging at all for Williams — her Wimbledon bona fides are simply too splendid — was most fiercely, most poignantly, for Johanna Konta, a late bloomer who gave the best of herself through nearly a fortnight of competition, in edge-of-your seat matches that brought animated crowds jumping to their feet.
Even when an injury-hobbled Andy Murray was eliminated on Wednesday, stopped dead in his title-defence tracks by another American, the galumphing and shambolic Sam Querrey, they still had Jo to ease the loss.
The upset-poised Konta, however, could not impose her flinty will — nor, most crucially, her AWOL second serve — on Williams, falling in a 6-4, 6-2 heap, trailing a baleful scattering of double faults, key evidence of nerves seeping.
Williams, in top form on grass — arguably more commanding, outwardly calmer than at the height of her glory era — has been showing the world her best tennis in memory. Doing it also as a solo Williams show, however much she is missing younger sister Serena, nesting at home in preparation for the birth of her first child.
“I’m trying to represent the Williamses,” a beaming Venus trilled afterwards. “I wish she could do this for me. But no, this time you have to do it for yourself.”
She cracked it from the back of the court — a second serve to save a break point in the ninth game of the opening set clocked in at 106 miles per hour, gutsy move — and wore Konta out by pushing her wide side-to-side, aggressively returned serves from inside the baseline, totally disrupted her opponent’s timing and almost took her head off on one particular body serve.
Pivotally, Williams’ game, honed over 20 years of Grand Slams, boasts edgier nuance and more sweeping variety — a wider range of shot selections in which she has utter confidence — than the British No. 1 can summon at this point in her rapidly evolving career.
Konta’s first and only break chance in the opening frame came and went while Williams won eight of the last nine points in the set, denying her opponent time and space, stepping up at crucial junctures, breaking the Brit — misdirected backhand — to claim the first frame with ease.
But Konta had coolly rallied from a set down twice before in this tournament. On this occasion, however, perhaps the pressure and the kismet allocation caught up with the 26-year-old. The vise tightened in the fourth game of the second set as Konta’s forehand left the building. An unfortunate clip of the net and double fault combined to tip Konta towards the bleak zone.
She rescued one of three break points, delighting the crowd with a drop volley. But, off-balance, overcooked a forehand.
Konta held nervously in the sixth but couldn’t forestall the inevitable in the eighth, battling thrice to deuce. On Williams’ third matchpoint opportunity — courtesy of Konta’s seventh double fault — the American rifled a forehand past her opponent, stranded at the net.
“She dictated the match from the very first ball till the very last one,” Konta admitted later. “She just showed her true qualities and why she’s a five-time champion here, just a true champion that she is.”
Adding: “This was my second Grand Slam semifinal. It was her 202nd, I bet.”
Not quite — her 22nd — but her 101st singles match at Wimbledon.
Williams was gracious in victory. “She played an amazing tournament. She showed a lot of courage, played in tough situations against players who were in form. I feel like she wants these majors. She’ll have an opportunity.”
And she paid tribute again to the absent sibling who was unable to defend her title, who beat Venus in the final of the Australian Open in January, those limp Williams-onWilliams encounters from earlier in their careers relegated to the distant past.
“I miss her so much. Even more yesterday and today. I try to take the same courage on the court that she would have. I did think of that. I tried to do the things she would do.’’
Serena will likely be consulted before the final against Muguruza. Two years ago, she defeated a more gauche version of the woman in the final here. Last year, Muguruza beat Serena at Roland Garros to seize her first Slam championship.
This version of Muguruza is intensely focused, unawed with the environment and ruthless — demonstrated in a 6-1, 6-1 thrashing of woeful underdog Magdalena Rybarikova of Slovakia in the other women’s semi Thursday.
That was too easy-peasy but Muguruza bounced (now) world No. 1 Karolina Pliskova in the second round last week.
“I lost two years ago so I really look forward this one, to try to change that.”
Venus Williams recalled her Wimbledon debut 20 years ago.
“I was so nervous in my first match here, it was a total disaster. Poor young V. But definitely come up since that time.”