Venus Williams stands on the brink of making history as the American star bids to become the oldest Grand Slam champion in Saturday’s Wimbledon final against Garbine Muguruza.
Venus Williams became the oldest Wimbledon finalist for 23 years on Thursday as the American star ended Johanna Konta’s history bid with a masterful 6-4, 6-2 win. It took only 73 minutes to write her name in the history books as the oldest Wimbledon finalist since Martina Navratilova in 1994.
The 37-year-old’s sublime display of power-hitting on Centre Court stopped Konta becoming the first British woman to make the final for 40 years and set up a title match against Spain’s Garbine Muguruza.
If Venus Williams wins Saturday’s final it will be her first Wimbledon title since 2008.
At an age when her contemporaries have long since retired, Venus Williams is playing some of the best tennis of her glittering career and she can cap her remarkable renaissance on Centre Court this weekend.
Before she makes history as the oldest Grand Slam champion she will have to face the 2016 French Open Champion Garbine Muguruza who is only 23. Muguruza stormed into her second Wimbledon final in three years with a 6-1, 6-1 demolition of nerve-ridden Magdalena Rybarikova. In her last Wimbledon final in 2015 she lost to Serena Williams.
Lifting the aptly named Venus Rosewater Dish would be an especially sweet moment for Williams, who has had to deal with a debilitating autoimmune disease for years, as well as her accidental involvement in a tragic car crash that killed an elderly man in Florida last month.