It was a battle of youth versus experience on ladies’ quarterfinal day at Wimbledon, with 37-year-old five-time champion Venus Williams, playing her 100th career match at the All England Club and appearing in her 13th quarterfinal, facing off against 20-year-old reigning French Open champion Jelena Ostapenko, making her first trip to Centre Court in her first last eight showing at SW19. This time around on the hallowed lawns of The Championships, it was experience winning through as Venus Williams secured an incredible 86th career victory in London, downing the brash youngster Ostapenko 6-3, 7-5 to advance to a second straight Wimbledon semifinal.
A dominant serving performance from the 37-year-old American was what did the trick today over Latvian Ostapenko, cracking an impressive eight aces and winning a huge 78% of first serve points off 66% of first deliveries in, a trademark of the Williams game. With the win today over Ostapenko, Venus moves back into the top 10, another incredible achievement for the seven-time major winner.
In the opening set, it was Williams dictating play, as the 10th seed took advantage of an understandably overawed Ostapenko, capitalizing to take her first break of the match in the second game for an early 2-0 lead. The following six games went according to serve as both players settled into the conditions on the closed-roofed Centre Court, with the 13th-seeded Latvian forcing the American legend to serve out the first set. Continuing with the theme of the first set, it was continued dominant serving from Williams, as the five-time champion served out the opening set comfortably on her second time of asking with a powerful ace to take it 6-3.
The second set began similarly for the world number 11, as the 37-year-old Williams saved a break point in her first service game of the set before riding that momentum to a break to love off the Ostapenko serve to go up another early lead at 2-1. Following two routine holds for both players, a loose service game from the 10th-seeded American surrendered the break back to the newly crowned French Open champion off a double fault.
The pair then resumed normal service, continuing to make light work of the majority of their service games to bring the scoreline to 4-all in the second set. The 20-year-old Latvian took care of her serve to force Williams to serve to stay in the set at 5-4. Ostapenko seemed to be upping her game as the American served to stay in the set, but an ace and two forehand errors from the Latvian gave Williams the hold to level at 5-all.
Looking to put the pressure back on the 10th seed, Ostapenko’s resistance cracked, as the brash big-hitting of the 20-year-old let her down, as four errors in a row off the ground gave the break to Williams and with it a chance to serve for a spot in the last four. Looking to close out the straight sets victory, four further errors from Ostapenko helped the five-time champion hold to love to close out the match 6-3, 7-5 and book a spot in the semifinals here at Wimbledon.
Following the match in her post-match interview, Williams summed it up perfectly, “Winning never gets old at any stage of your career.”
Asked what she loves so much about this game of tennis, the 37-year-old American said, “I love the challenge. I love pressure. It’s not always easy dealing with the pressure. There’s constant pressure. It’s only yourself who can have the answer for that.”
“I love the last day you play, you’re still improving. It’s not something that is stagnant. There’s always a reason. You have to get better. I love that,” said a wise, yet jubilant Williams.
In her run to a tenth Wimbledon semifinal and continuing to improve and work hard, the five-time champion commented, “I mean, I love this game. That’s why I put in the effort and the time. It’s a beautiful game. It’s been so good to me.”
Describing how her far superior experience helped today over Ostapenko, the tenth seed said, “I definitely think experience helps, for sure. For a lot of the players I’ve played, it’s their first time in the third round or the quarterfinals, whichever, fourth round.”
“So I have an opportunity to bank on experience in having dealt with those sort of pressures before,” concluded the American and seven-time Grand Slam champion.
Finally discussing her biggest weapon, her first serve, Williams said, “Yeah, it’s definitely a real asset. Been working on that serve. It’s working out for me just in time, just for these later rounds. I’d like to think that I can continue to rely on that as the matches continue.”
Asked about her next opponent, big-hitting Brit Johanna Konta, in the semifinals, the five-time winner said, “I’m sure she’s confident and determined. She’s probably dealing with a different kind of pressure playing here at home.”
“But she seems to be handling it well. It looks like she really does well under the pressure. I’ve played her before, so it’s a lot different than today,” said the 10th seed on her opponent who is the first British women since Virginia Wade to reach the semifinals at the All England Club.
Asked about her gameplan against the home hope Konta, the five-time champion said, “I think we play a very similar style: aggressive, serve well, return well, very solid off the ground. So really it’s just about playing that game better and see where you find openings on that day,” concluded Williams.
Williams and Konta will face off for a spot in the finals here at Wimbledon on Thursday.
