With this win, Venus confirmed that she is a competitor for the title, and not just a player that got lucky with the draw. Of course, facing two qualifiers (Barthel and Voegele), Kateryna Kozlova, and Ying-Ying Duan (None of them in Top 90) in her first four rounds definitely didn’t hurt, and it is a much easier draw than what Pavlyuchenkova had to go through. It was a pretty easy early draw for the Russian, facing her compatriots Evgeniya Rodina and Natalia Vikhlyantseva, and beating them in straight sets. However than things got rough for Pavlyuchenkova as she had to face Elina Svitolina in a really good form, but after a two and a half hour battle, Pavlyuchenkova emerged as a winner. She then went on to upset 8th seed Svetlana Kuznetsova in what could almost be called a routine fashion, 6-3 6-3. The scoreline doesn’t lie and the match was incredibly close and could have gone either way, experience in this type of matches really helped Venus gain the edge on “Pavs”.
First set brought a total of five breaks, three for Venus, two for Pavlyuchenkova. The Russian was pretty much expected to be broken a lot, since her serve isn’t much of a weapon and her 1st serve percentage was down to 42% in the opening set. The fact that she managed to keep it close was really a testament to Pavlyuchenkova’s returning, and she managed to win 57% of returns after 1st serve, but surprisingly only 29% after 2nd. Venus was still consistent on serve and return, and managed to win 54% of both. The biggest difference was that Williams kept her winner to unforced error ratio on the good side, while Pavlyuchenkova had only 5 winners to 11 unforced errors. Experience is what really helped Venus to get this first set. First she broke back to 4-4, then got to 5-4 with an easy service game, thus putting the pressure on Pavlyuchenkova who didn’t handle it well and was easily broken again. Venus Williams won the first set 6-4.
Second set mostly operated with swings of form from both players. Venus started the set off with a routine service game, but immediately the next game would become one of the most key of the match. It lasted almost ten minutes with Pavlyuchenkova being the winner, denying Venus three break points to take a lead and run away with the match. The Russian used the momentum, and broke in the next game. It was Venus’ turn after the changeover, she broke back to 2-2 and went to 3-2. They kept this pattern going until 4-4, from when they all held until the second set tiebreak. Williams was still showing dominance coming into the tiebreak, not losing a point on her last two service games. Pavlyuchenkova took a 3-1 lead, giving spectators a hope of a third set, but Venus Williams won 6 points in a row and won the second set tiebreak 7-3.
Since it was a straight set win, Venus is coming into the semifinals. This match turned this statistic from a testament to Venus’ cake draw to a really impressive feat. Americans now have the assurance of a finalist at the Australian Open, as Venus Williams will play the incredible unseeded Coco Vandeweghe in the semifinals. If Serena Williams will also win her quarterfinals, this will be the first time that 3 Americans made the Australian Open semifinals since 2001. That was 16 years ago, but Venus Williams is now again one of the players, making a huge statement about her career.
“It’s wonderful to start the year out with this appearance,” said Williams, who hadn’t reached the semifinals here since 2003, the year she lost the final to her sister, Serena. “I want to go further. I’m not happy just with this. But I’m so happy to be in the position to like go further.”
