Venus reserves spot in semifinals
MELBOURNE, Australia — Age appears to be no barrier for Venus Williams.
The 36-year-old Williams beat No. 24-seeded Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 6-4, 7-6 (3) on Tuesday, becoming the oldest player to reach the Australian Open women’s semifinals in the Open era.
Her 50th career victory at Melbourne Park earned her a spot in the last four for the first time in 14 years.
“It’s wonderful to start the year out with this appearance,” said Williams, who had not reached the semifinals here since 2003 — the year she lost the final to sister Serena. “I want to go further. I’m not happy just with this.”
She will play fellow American CoCo Vandeweghe — a 6-4, 6-0 winner over French Open champion Garbine Muguruza.
Vandeweghe, who will be playing her first major semifinal, has beaten Grand Slam champions in back-to-back matches after her upset of top-ranked Angelique Kerber, who won the Australian and U.S. titles last year.
Venus Williams, a seventime major winner, has advanced through the tournament without dropping a set, recovering from a right elbow injury that forced her to withdraw from a warm-up tournament in New Zealand.
Now she is into semifinals for the second time in three majors — after a six-year absence from the last four — and for the 21st time overall.
Her victory over Pavlyuchenkova came a day after sister Serena advanced to the quarterfinals for the 11th time with a 7-5, 6-4 win over No. 16-seeded Barbora Strycova.
Serena, 35, a six-time Australian Open champion who is aiming for an Open-era record 23rd Grand Slam title, next will face 2016 semifinalist Johanna Konta, who beat Ekaterina Makarova 6-1, 6-4.
Rafael Nadal is coming back from two months off to rest his injured left wrist and was delighted to reach the quarterfinals of a Grand Slam for the 30th time with his 6-3, 6-3, 4-6, 6-4 victory over Gael Monfils. It was Nadal’s first win over a top-10 player at a Grand Slam since his French Open victory in 2014 — the last of his 14 major titles.
“Being in the quarterfinals of a Grand Slam after couple of years not being there is special for me,” said Nadal, who last progressed this far at the 2015 French Open.
He next plays third-ranked Milos Raonic, the Wimbledon finalist and highest-ranked man still in the tournament after upset losses for topranked Andy Murray and defending champion Novak Djokovic. Raonic had a 7-6 (6), 3-6, 6-4, 6-1 win over No. 13 Roberto Bautista Agut.
Grigor Dimitrov, seeded 15th, closed with an ace to hold off wild-card entry Denis Istomin, who upset Djokovic in the third round, 2-6, 7-6 (2), 6-2, 6-1. The Bulgarian next will play No. 11 David Goffin.