Miami Open: Venus downs Kerber to set up Semi-final clash with Konta

TIL Desk Sports/ Venus Williams rolled back the years to send world number one Angelique Kerber crashing out of the Miami Open on Wednesday and advance to a semi-final showdown with Britain’s Johanna Konta. Williams, at 36 the oldest woman in the field, downed Kerber in straight sets, winning 7-5, 6-3 while Konta fought back to beat Romania’s Simon Halep 3-6, 7-6(9/7), 6-2.

Both results had the element of surprise about them with Kerber the top seed and Halep the third and in good form, but they set up what should be a fascinating contest on Thursday. The other semi-final pits Denmark’s Caroline Wozniacki against second-seed Karolina Pliskova of the Czech Republic.

With the local crowd behind her, Williams, a three-time winner at Miami clearly believed she could topple the German but the first set saw both players struggle to hold their serves. The American broke Kerber four times while Williams failed to hold serve twice, but the contest was more one-sided in the second set. Williams raced to a 4-1 lead before Kerber broke back and started to produce some great shots as she battled in vain to save the match. The victory over Halep means Konta becomes the first British woman to reach the last four at Miami.