Williams out to break local hearts
BREEZE: WILLIAMS SENDS OSTAPENKO CRASHING OUT
Konta hopes to emulate Wade’s 1978 Wimbledon heroics.
Venus Williams became the oldest Wimbledon semifinalist for 23 years as the five-time champion brushed aside French Open winner Jelena Ostapenko, while Garbine Muguruza powered past Svetlana Kuznetsova to make it into the last four yesterday.
Williams’ masterclass on Centre Court clinched a 6-3, 7-5 victory that made her the most senior player to reach the semifinals since Martina Navratilova in 1994.
The American star, who reached the last of her eight Wimbledon finals in 2009, faces Britain’s Johanna Konta or Romania’s Simona Halep tomorrow.
World No 11 Williams, beaten in this year’s Australian Open final, was knocked out in the 2016 semifinals and is chasing a first major title since winning Wimbledon in 2008.
Williams’ victory equalled her sister Serena’s total of 86 main draw match victories here.
She will climb back into the top 10 thanks to her Wimbledon run, but breaking Serena’s record to become the tournament’s oldest champion in the Open era is her sole focus.
Twenty years after making her Wimbledon debut, Venus was playing in her 100th singles match at the All England Club, while Ostapenko was in only her eighth.
Having stunned the tennis world by becoming the first unseeded player to win the French Open last month, Ostapenko was riding an 11-match winning streak in the Slams.
But Ostapenko, 20, was the youngest player left and Venus has scythed through the draw by dispatching a series of opponents almost half her age.
Williams was just too canny for Ostapenko, manoeuvering her out of position time and again before delivering the kill shot.
Muguruza powered into her second Wimbledon semifinal in the last three years with an emphatic 6-3, 6-4 win over Russian seventh seed Kuznetsova.
Muguruza, beaten by Serena in the 2015 Wimbledon final, will face Coco Vandeweghe or Magdalena Rybarikova in the last four.
Following Venus on to Centre Court is Johanna Konta, who takes on Simona Halep bidding to become the first British woman to reach the semifinals since Virginia Wade in 1978. –