LONDON—It had been six years since Venus Williams reached a Wimbledon quarterfinal. Yet her run this year surprised no one, as she took out Yaroslava Shvedova on Tuesday, 7-6 (5), 6-2, to advance to the Wimbledon semifinals for the first time since 2009.
“When you can walk to the net the winner, that’s the goal,” Williams said. “That’s the dream.”
Williams climbed back into the Top 10 last year (she’s now No. 8), a feat that was very quietly achieved under the shadow of her younger sister. She also reached two Grand Slam quarterfinals last year, at the Australian and U.S. Opens.
Serena has figured out that she can do, and say, pretty much anything, often opting to answer questions with “I don’t know” or one-word utterances. But her older sister, Venus, is still as eloquent and regal as ever. Last week, the 36-year-old referred to “infinity” to describe the way she feels on court, and it may become the word of the tournament, or even the year.
“I don't think anyone feels older,” Venus said. “You have this infinity inside of you that feels like you could go forever. That's how I feel on the court. As long as I'm halfway decent [and] can get my racquet on the ball, I think I can make something happen. So far so good.”
How did world No. 96 Shvedova even find herself facing a seven-time Grand Slam champion? The Kazakhstani took out 17th seed Elina Svitolina in the second round, former Wimbledon finalist Sabine Lisicki in the third and 28th seed Lucia Safarova on Monday. Though her ranking is low now, the Kazakhstani has been as high as No. 25 (in 2012).