NOW VENUS THE AGELESS WARRIOR IS NEXT HURDLE
Jo Konta needs to know that the obstacle now standing before her and a Wimbledon final does not tend to evaporate at this stage. Venus Williams has played nine semi-finals and lost only one of them.
Williams smiled a little ruefully yesterday when asked about the pressure which comes with tomorrow’s Centre Court turf for the British player — in a nation which has not celebrated a women’s champion for 40 years.
‘I don’t know,’ she reflected. ‘the pressure you put on yourself is even tougher for me than any exterior pressure. You may have to ask her.’
So spoke a 37-year- old for whom a last four appointment with Konta is just one more landmark in the family legend which has been defining these championships for 17 years.
It is a comparatively minor challenge for a player who has won the title five times, fought off the debilitating Sjogren’s Syndrome and still returned to the top this year, against all expectation. at Melbourne in January, she reached her first Grand Slam final in eight years.
Martina navratilova said yesterday: ‘I don’t think any one of us thought that she could win another Slam four or five years ago, and here she is. I take my hat off to her.’
Williams was the oldest Wimbledon quarter-finalist since navratilova when she walked on court against Jelena ostapenko and her comfortable 6-3, 7-5 win in 73 minutes demonstrated why she is still a player to fear.
She calmly walked the baseline, calmly called for a towel and calmly eliminated the prodigious new French open champion. age, it seems, has given her more time than ever.
It was Williams’s 100th singles match here and her opponent was a month old when she played the first of them — a three-set defeat by Magdalena Grzybowska 20 years ago.
ostapenko was asked if she could recall one of her opponent’s more memorable victories from her childhood days back in Latvia, but drew a blank. ‘I was too young,’ she said. ‘I watched Serena instead.’
that answer, and the 20-yearold’s indifference to the giant place Williams holds in tennis, reminded you that the american has not claimed a significant prize since the last of her five titles here, nine years ago.
She did not give much of herself away when she arrived to discuss her win. Her involvement in the car accident which claimed the life of a 78-year-old seems to haunt her. Someone casually mentioned a ‘situation’ at one stage, in a question about ‘pressure’.
‘Situation? What situation?’ Williams replied, anxiously.
Yet there was the eloquence that comes with age in the way she embarked on a discussion of her 20 years and 86 wins on these courts.
‘I love it,’ she said. ‘there’s no other explanation. You do your best while you can. I mean, I love this game. It’s a beautiful game. It’s been so good to me.’
the same wisdom was written through her quarter-final game plan. ostapenko, who arrived flushed with her Roland Garros success and 11 consecutive Grand Slam wins, played with wild abandon at times.
‘Yeah, she went for a lot of shots,’ said Williams, diplomatically. ‘But I think she probably felt, “You’re in the quarter-finals so maybe you have to go for your shots”.’
the most telling statistic was the winners Williams made in rallies. there were a mere two of them, which should encourage Konta. She let her service do the talking and left ostapenko to make her mistakes. the american’s service is the weapon Konta ought to fear. Frequently, the no 11 seed sent it spearing into the Latvian’s body.
the 97mph missile Williams delivered to clinch the first set left her opponent staggering out of its path.
Williams stood well inside the baseline to pounce on 75mph second serves and ostapenko’s 38 per cent win ratio on her own serve told its own story.
at the end, Williams performed an understated pirouette of acknowledgement to the four corners of the court. She has been defying age for the best part of two weeks now, defeating a 21-year-old, a 20-year-old and two teenagers on her way to the semi-finals.
to go the full course after so many fallow years would be one of the great stories and make her the oldest women’s champion by a distance. navratilova was 33 when she won her last one.
‘the competition keeps you growing,’ she said. ‘You have to get better if you want to stay relevant.’