Venus Williams may be old in tennis terms, but she is proving once again that quality precedes age.
When the 36-year-old beat Russia’s Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 6-4 7-6 (7-3) on Tuesday, the American became the oldest women’s semifinalist at the Australian Open in the Open Era.
Whose record did she beat? Younger sister Serena, who was 34 last year in reaching the last four at Melbourne Park.
And with Serena still in contention — the 22-time grand slam winner meets Britain’s Johanna Konta in her quarterfinal Wednesday — a first all-Williams grand slam final since 2009 at Wimbledon is moving ever closer.
It almost happened last year at the All England Club but Venus lost in the semifinals to current No. 1 Angelique Kerber.
The seven-time grand slam winner will have to defeat fellow California native CoCo Vandeweghe to make the final. Vandeweghe — who packs a huge serve and forehand — upset 2016 French Open winner Garbine Muguruza of Spain 7-5 6-0 to land in a maiden grand slam semifinal after downing Kerber on Sunday.
Vandeweghe becomes the fifth surprise women’s semifinalist at the Australian Open in as many seasons, following Sloane Stephens, Eugenie Bouchard, Madison Keys and Konta.
In their lone duel, Venus Williams beat Vandeweghe — who just missed out on a seeding ranked 35th — in Rome last year.
Later Tuesday, Roger Federer faces Mischa Zverev and Stan Wawrinka battles Jo-Wilfried Tsonga.
