Still life in the old Venus yet

– Venus Williams (above) said she was by no means finished yet after swatting aside Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova to march into the semifinals of the Australian Open for the first time since 2003 yesterday.

Nineteen years after making her Australian Open debut, the 36-year-old cashed in on the experience of 73 Grand Slams to set up a meeting with another 25-yearold in fellow American Coco Vandeweghe.

“To me, the semifinals is a stepping-stone, just like the other rounds,” she said.

“It’s an opportunity to advance. The tournament is by no means over. It’s definitely down to the business end.

“I feel like I’m playing the kind of tennis I want, to produce the results I want.”

A title tilt against her sister Serena is still on the cards if she gets past Vandeweghe but for all her patriotism and sisterly love, Venus is thinking only of herself.

“Should I look across the net and believe the person across the net deserves it more?” she asked. “This mentality is not how champions are made. I’d like to be a champion, in particular this year.

“The mentality I walk on court with is: I deserve this.”

The 13th seed has stretched an impressive return to form that began with a quarterfinal berth here in 2015 and included a run to the Wimbledon semifinals last year. Palyuchenkova was impressed. “It was kind of surprising for me how in great form she is now,” she said.

“Like, she’s playing good, moving well, very solid on the baseline. Of course, she’s serving well.

“She didn’t give me much of a rhythm because she was either making winners or easy mistakes. So that was not easy.” –