By Chris Oddo | Tuesday July 5, 2016

 

Venus Williams reached the semifinals at Wimbledon for the first time in seven years with a Day 9 victory over Yaroslava Shvedova.

Photo Source: Julian Finney/Getty

Venus Williams is back on the big stage at the All England Club. The 36-year-old, already the oldest player to reach the second week at a major in 22 years, has reached the semifinals at a Grand Slam for the first time since the 2010 U.S. Open.

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Williams’ 7-6(5), 6-2 win over Yaroslava Shvedova sets up a clash with 4th-seeded Angelique Kerber. The German defeated Simona Halep 7-5, 7-6(2) to reach the Wimbledon semifinals for the second time.

Kerber holds a 3-2 lifetime record against Williams but lost their last meeting in 2014 at Montreal.

Williams and Shvedova traded breaks in the opener before the Kazakh took a 5-2 lead in the first-set tiebreaker. But nerves took hold of the first-time Wimbledon quarterfinalist and she sprayed several errors whilst losing the final five points of the set.

Williams broke in the first game of set two and though Shvedova broke immediately back in the next game, she could not manage a hold in game three and dropped five of the final six games to fall.

Shvedova, 28 and ranked 96 in the world, was bidding to become the lowest-ranked player to ever defeat five-time champion Williams at Wimbledon.

"I love playing the game, I always have,” Williams told the BBC after the match. “The wins and the losses they all lead to these big moments."

Kerber and Halep had a wild battle that featured 13 breaks of serve and a lot of short-lived momentum swings. Though there were breaks aplenty, there were also many dazzling, high-intensity rallies that brought the Centre Court crowd to their feet.

Kerber was the better player in the big moments, and turned the corner late by surging past Halep in the second-set tiebreaker.

The German has now reached two Wimbledon semifinals in the last five years.