Venus into semis for the 10th time
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PLAYING at Wimbledon for the 20th time, Venus Williams is in the semifinals for the 10th time.
The five-time champion at the All England Club advanced to the last four for the second year in a row by beating Jelena Ostapenko 6-3, 7-5 yesterday under a closed roof on Centre Court.
Williams, who is 37 years old, made her Wimbledon debut a few months before Ostapenko was born. She last won the title in 2008, but reached the semifinals last year and the Australian Open final this year.
Williams became the oldest Wimbledon semifinalist for 23 years after Martina Navratilova made it thus far in 1994.
Williams will next face either second-seeded Simona Halep or Johanna Konta tomorrow. In the other women’s semifinal match, Garbine Muguruza will play either CoCo Vandeweghe or Magdalena Rybarikova. Muguruza beat Svetlana Kuznetsova 6-3, 6-4 on No. 1 Court.
Konta was playing Halep on Centre Court next. On Court No. 1, Rybarikova was taking on Vandeweghe.
On the men’s side, Novak Djokovic advanced to the quarterfinals by beating Adrian Mannarino 6-2, 7-6 (5), 6-4. That match, the first to be played under the roof on Centre Court at this year’s tournament, was postponed from Monday.
Williams went up a break early in both sets against Ostapenko, the French Open champion. But the 20-year-old Latvian broke back in the second set and it went to 5-5. A few unforced errors later, though, and Williams broke again for a 6-5 lead before serving out the match.
Williams ended up with eight aces and only 13 winners. Ostapenko had one ace and 20 winners.
In the first match, Djokovic was up a break in the third set when he asked for a medical timeout and a trainer examined and stretched his right shoulder. The second-seeded Serb appeared to grimace in pain a couple of times as his shoulder was being checked.
“It’s been something that I’ve been dragging back and forth for a while now,” Djokovic said. “But I’m still managing to play, which is the most important thing.”
Djokovic was broken only once, in the second set. But the 12-time major champion, who won the Wimbledon title in 2011, ‘14 and ‘15, broke Mannarino early in the third and advanced to the quarterfinals at the All England Club for the ninth time.
Mannarino has never before reached the quarterfinals at any of the four majors.
Djokovic will face 2010 Wimbledon finalist Tomas Berdych, a man he has beaten 25 times in 27 matches, today.
The men traditionally have Tuesday off, but Rafael Nadal’s five-set loss to Gilles Muller on Monday forced Djokovic’s match to be pushed back a day.
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