Venus Back in Orbit With Upset Victory

Youthful exuberance and invincibility have been tempered by injuries, a superior sibling and family tragedy, but for a stirring afternoon and into early evening, Venus Williams climbed into tennis’ time machine and recaptured her best days.

Her version of time travel ended the Wimbledon reign of 18-year-old Maria Sharapova of Russia. The second-seeded Sharapova often seemed on her back foot in Thursday’s high-voltage, shriek-a-thon semifinal, which the 14th-seeded Williams won, 7-6 (2), 6-1, looking almost as though she had been ambushed by an impostor.

After all, this was not the Venus Williams that Sharapova thought she knew. Williams, 25, had not reached a Grand Slam final since Wimbledon in 2003, and won her first Wimbledon title back in 2000. That had to be a fuzzy image for Sharapova, who was 13 in 2000.

Thursday, the passive, almost vague player of the last couple of years was replaced by a focused aggressor. Williams refused to yield an inch, even looking as if she was gritting her teeth in a nine-minute game, at 4-1 in the second, when she fought off two break points on her serve.

The only review that mattered came in shortly after the 1-hour 42-minute match. It was from younger sister Serena Williams, who had returned to the U.S. after losing Saturday.

“She called me and said, ‘Can I have your autograph?’ ” said Venus, who last won a major at the U.S. Open in 2001.

Venus had done what Serena could not do at Wimbledon last year in the final against Sharapova. Sharapova’s victory had ended a run of four straight titles by the Williams sisters, by Venus in 2000 and 2001 and by Serena in 2002 and 2003.

Venus Williams, one win from her third Wimbledon title, wasn’t ready to claim ownership of Centre Court just yet. Since her last Wimbledon title, she has suffered countless injuries -- most prominently, a torn abdominal muscle -- and the death of her half-sister Yetunde, who was shot in Compton.

“I think many people have had this place: [Martina] Navratilova, [Steffi] Graf, Billie Jean King, all these people,” she said. “It’s just something that’s rented.”

The identity of Williams’ opponent in Saturday’s final won’t be known until today. Top-seeded Lindsay Davenport was one game from making the final, leading, 5-3, in the third set against third-seeded Amelie Mauresmo of France when it began raining again about 7:30 p.m.

About half an hour later, officials made the decision to call it off until today. They will return to Court 1 with Mauresmo serving at 3-5, 15-0. Mauresmo won the first set, 7-6 (5), and Davenport rallied from a 1-3 deficit in the second to take it, 7-6 (4).

Light drizzle all afternoon had put the players in a holding pattern, delaying the start of the semifinals for almost 4 1/2 hours.

“It was pretty boring,” Sharapova said.

Even though umbrellas weren’t needed for long stretches, the courts remained covered. Because of the long delay, officials ended up moving the Davenport-Mauresmo match to Court 1, and they started a few minutes before Williams-Sharapova on Centre Court.

It turned out to be a riveting advertisement for women’s tennis as three of the four sets played in the semifinals were decided in a tiebreaker. Williams, who had not taken a set off Sharapova in two previous matches, took a 5-2 first-set lead and Sharapova expended a considerable amount of energy to creep back and ultimately force the tiebreaker. Williams opened a 3-0 lead in the tiebreaker and won it, 7-2.

“I was down, 0-1, and I’m serving and I made two errors that were about one inch wide,” Sharapova said of the tiebreaker. “That’s the way it goes with tennis. If I had made them, who knows what would have happened? We would have been back on serve.”

That may not have mattered the way Williams treated Sharapova’s serve. In her first five matches, Sharapova’s serve was broken once. Williams broke her serve four times Thursday, including three times in the second set.

“I’m obviously very sad,” said Sharapova, who had been on a 22-match winning streak on grass. “This tournament means a lot to me -- more than any other tournament. I guess there’s many more years to come.”

Williams has come to that realization after the hard times. Before this Wimbledon, she had been in only one Grand Slam quarterfinal since the Wimbledon final in 2003. It seemed as though she were going nowhere on a treadmill, having lost to youngster Sesil Karatantcheva of Bulgaria in the third round at the recent French Open, not exactly the best confidence-builder.

“There were times when I was -- sure I was disappointed in how I played because I knew I could play better,” Williams said. “But all things in good time. Everyone has their moment in the sun. That’s what my mom always says, ‘Everyone has their chance.’ ”