Venus Williams reaches semifinals, sets record at Australian Open
Venus Williams reaches semifinals, sets record at Australian Open:- Venus Williams became the oldest Australian Open semifinalist in Open Era history when she captured the 50th Australian Open main draw victory of her career with a 6-4, 7-6 (3) quarterfinal win over Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova on Tuesday.
When the 24th-seeded Pavlyuchenkova double-faulted the final point of the second set tiebreaker she delivered Williams into the Australian Open semifinals for the first time in 14 years.
The 36-year-old Williams couldn’t contain her happiness, and didn’t try.
Williams’ smile stretched from ear-to-ear as she blew a kiss into the air after the 1 hour, 48 minute match. She did her trademark twirl around on the court, and then made like she was hugging herself, in a delightful on-court celebration.
“I’m so excited today,” Williams said on-court. “It was a hard fought match and she never gave up. I want more. I want to go further and I’m so happy to be in a position to go further.”
This tournament marks a rare occasion where 35-year-old Serena Williams, by sheer luck of birth order, could come in second place to sister Venus. It turns out that Serena, a 22-time Grand Slam champion to just seven major titles for Venus, would be the second oldest Australian Open women’s semifinalist in the Open Era if she advances.
Williams came into the tournament nursing a right arm injury, which forced her to abandon plans of playing the Brisbane tuneup tournament. Now she’s into her second Grand Slam semifinal in less than a year – Williams reached the final four at Wimbledon last year.
It’s been confident tennis throughout for Venus Williams, who has yet to drop a set en route to the semifinals. While she did get broken on four occasions by Pavlyuchenkova, Williams was the dominant player when it came to crunch time on the court.
In relation to the quarterfinals, Venus Williams had the distinction of being the oldest Australian Open quarterfinalist since a 39-year-old Billie Jean King in 1982.
Australian Judy Dalton holds the record for the oldest Australian Open quarterfinalist in history having reached that mark a week after her 40th birthday in 1977.
Williams’ closest shot to taking home an Australian Open trophy came when she reached the final here in 2003. The trophy did go home to the Williams household, but with Serena and not Venus.
The Williams sisters represent two of the three women quarterfinalists aged over-30 this year with Croatia’s 34-year-old Mirjana Lucic-Baroni the third.
The Williams sisters have been a focal point of the women’s game since Venus joined the tour in 1997, a year before Serena became a regular presence. Interestingly, in all that time they’ve only both journeyed to the semifinal round at the same Grand Slam on 12 occasions, including at this Australian Open.
Williams will play unseeded American Coco Vandeweghe, who upset No. 7 seed Garbine Muguruza two days after knocking off No. 1 seed Angelique Kerber.
sOURCE:- http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/tennis/2017/01/23/venus-williams-semifinals-australian-open-2003/96976544/
