A vintage Venus Williams powered past Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova and into her third Australian Open semi-final on Tuesday Jan 24,2017, becoming the oldest woman to make a Grand Slam last four in 23 years.
The 36-year-old overcame the Russian 6-4, 7-6 (7/3) and will play fellow American Coco Vandeweghe for a place in the final.
Her achievement makes her the oldest woman to reach a Grand Slam semi since a 37-year-old Martina Navratilova at Wimbledon in 1994.
It is a remarkable feat for Williams, who made her professional debut in 1994 and is enjoying a late-career renaissance following a battle with a rare autoimmune disorder.
Venus Williams made the same round at Wimbledon last year but had not got this far at Melbourne Park since 2003, when she beat Justine Henin only to lose to sister Serena in the final.
Henin is long retired but Serena is still going strong and plays her quarter-final, against Johanna Konta, on Wednesday, with an all-Williams title match still on the cards.
Venus Williams also made the last four at Melbourne in 2001, losing to then world number one Martina Hingis, another veteran who is playing in doubles at this year's Australian Open.
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