No all-Williams final at Wimbledon; Kerber stops Venus in SF
LONDON — Venus Williams’ deepest Grand Slam run in a half-dozen years ended one victory short of what would have been yet another Wimbledon title match against her sister Serena.
Unable to replicate the sort of turn-back-time performance that carried her to the semifinals at the All England Club, Venus was broken in her first four service games Thursday and lost to No. 4-seeded Angelique Kerber 6-4, 6-4.
The 36-year-old Venus was the oldest Slam semifinalist since Martina Navratilova was 37 at Wimbledon in 1994. Venus is a five-time champion at the grass-court tournament, but she hadn’t made it this far since at Wimbledon since 2009, or at any major since the 2010 U.S. Open.
So now, instead of an all-Williams final on Saturday, it will be Kerber against No. 1 Serena in a rematch of the Australian Open final won by the German in January.