Vintage Venus shines

Williams advances to her first Melbourne semifinal in 14 years

Venus Williams continued her astonishing late-career revival by defeating Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 6-4, 7-6 (3) on Tuesday to advance to her first Australian Open semifinal in 14 years and become the oldest woman to reach the last four at Melbourne Park in the professional era.

The quarterfinal will hardly be remembered as a classic, with both Venus and the 24th-ranked Russian surrendering serve with alarming regularity despite perfect conditions at Rod Laver Arena.

In the end it was experience that proved decisive for the 36-year-old Williams, and Pavlyuchenkova crumbled with a double-fault on match point to boost the American's hopes of winning her first Aussie Open.

"Oh my gosh I'm so excited," said the seven-time Grand Slam champion after closing out the 108-minute tussle. "I want to go further. I'm not happy just with this. I'm just so excited that I have another opportunity to play again."

Following her run at Wimbledon, 13th seed Williams has now made the semifinals at two of the past three Grand Slams.

She was 22 when she last made the semifinals at Melbourne during a run to the 2003 final, where she was beaten by younger sister Serena, the current world No 2, in three sets.

Venus will play an all-American semifinal against Coco Vandeweghe, who thrashed former French Open champion Garbine Muguruza 6-4, 6-0 in the following quarterfinal at Rod Laver Arena.

The prospect of a repeat of the 2003 final against Serena beckons if the second seed can get there as well.

Venus has stormed through the Melbourne Park draw without losing a set, benefiting from a favorable draw, playing two qualifiers and Duan Yingying, China's fifth-ranked player, but was never truly threatened by Pavlyuchenkova who sabotaged herself with nine double-faults.

Both players struggled to hold serve but Pavlyuchenkova buckled at the bigger moments.

When serving at 5-4 to stay in the first set, she double-faulted and butchered a forehand to offer three set points. Venus needed only one, hammering a backhand return down the line and giving a yelp in triumph.

There was no more resilience on serve in the second set, with both players trading breaks to move to 4-4.

Pavlyuchenkova double-faulted to fall back to 0-30 at 6-5, two points from elimination, but bravely rallied to take Williams into a tiebreak.

The Russian led 3-1 before it all fell apart.

She double-faulted to allow Venus to draw level and the American spanked a huge return down the line to edge ahead.

Venus hammered a forehand winner to bring up three match points and Pavlyuchenkova surrendered the match meekly with her ninth double-fault.

With her run to the Wimbledon semifinals last year, Williams became the oldest woman since Martina Navratilova in 1994 to advance so far at a major. Navratilova was 37 years, 258 days at the end of Wimbledon that year.

The record belongs to Billie Jean King, who was 39 years, 223 days when she reached the Wimbledon semifinals in 1983.

With Serena Williams in the quarterfinals and targeting a record 23rd major, there's the prospect of another all-Williams final in Melbourne.

"I try to believe," Venus said. "I'd like to be a champion, in particular this year. My mentality when I walk on court with is: 'I deserve this'."