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VINTAGE WINE . . . Venus Williams celebrates after beating Britain’s Johanna Konta in the women’s singles semi-final match at the Wimbledon Tennis Championships in London yesterday. Twenty years after making her Wimbledon debut, five-time champion Venus Williams is into her ninth final at the All England Club and her first since 2009

LONDON — Venus Williams reached her ninth Wimbledon tennis final and first since 2009, turning in her latest display of gutsy serving to beat Briton Johanna Konta 6-4, 6-2 yesterday.

At 37, Williams is the oldest finalist at the All England Club since Martina Navratilova was the 1994 runner-up at that age.

She also stopped Konta’s bid to become the first woman from Britain in 40 years to win Wimbledon. “I’ve played a lot of finals here,” Venus Williams told BBC Sport. “One more win will be amazing. It won’t be a given but I’ll give it my all.”

She will next face Muguruza, the 14th seed, who thrashed unseeded Slovakian Magdalena Rybarikova 6-1, 6-1 in just 64 minutes to advance to her second Wimbledon final yesterday.

The Spaniard finished runner-up to Serena Williams in 2015, before beating the American to win the French Open in 2016.

Tomorrow, Venus Williams will be seeking her sixth Wimbledon championship and eighth Grand Slam singles trophy overall. Her most recent came in 2008, when she defeated her younger sister, Serena, for the title. A year later, she lost to Serena.

In the time since, Williams revealed that she was diagnosed with Sjogren’s syndrome, which can sap energy and cause joint pain. As time went on, there were questions about whether she might retire, especially after a half-dozen first-round losses at major tournaments. But she kept on going, and lately has returned to winning.

Her resurgence began in earnest at Wimbledon a year ago, when she made it to the semi-finals before losing. Then, at the Australian Open this January, Venus Williams appeared in the final, where she lost to — yes, you guessed it — her sister.

Tomorrow, the 10th-seeded American will participate in her second Grand Slam final of the season, this time against 14th-seeded Muguruza of Spain. In yesterday’s opening semi-final, Muguruza overwhelmed 87th-ranked Rybarikova of Slovakia 6-1, 6-1 in just over an hour.

Venus Williams’ semi-final was more competitive, at least at the outset. Indeed, it was Konta who had the first chance to nose ahead, standing a point from serving from the opening set when it was 4-all and Williams was serving down 15-40.

Venus Williams erased the first break point with a backhand winner down the line, and the second with a 106 mph (171 kph) second serve that went right at Konta’s body. It was a risky strategy, going for so much pace on a second serve, but it worked. That opened a run in which Williams collected 12 of 13 points and seized control.

She wouldn’t face another break point the rest of the way. Konta played quite well, especially early, and hit six aces — three in a single game — before Williams had one. By the finish, Konta had produced more winners, 20 to 19, each greeted by roars from the Centre Court crowd.

Venus Williams, though, has so much more experience in these circumstances, and it showed down the stretch. This was her 10th semifinal in 20 Wimbledon appearances; Konta had never been past the second round at the grass-court tournament before this year.

There was also a meaningful gap in the track records of the other semifinals, and it made a difference right away. Muguruza won 15 of the first 20 points en route to a 5-0 lead, before Rybarikova at last managed to win a solitary game, 26 minutes into the match.

That, though, was followed by another five-game run by Muguruza.

Even though Rybarikova entered having won 18 of her past 19 grass-court matches, mostly at lower-level tournaments, she suddenly looked a lot more like someone whose career record at Wimbledon before last week was 2-9.

A lot of that certainly had to do with Muguruza, who was terrific. Her serves came swiftly and at hard-to-handle angles. Her ground-strokes were flat and powerful. Her net approaches were well-timed, her volleys on-target.

She faced only one break point, saving it. She earned 12 on Rybarikova’s serve, converting five. She won the point on 19 of 25 trips to the net. And she accumulated a 22-8 edge in winners.

That earned the 23-year-old Muguruza a berth in her third career Grand Slam final, second at the All England Club. She lost to Serena Williams with the title on the line at Wimbledon in 2015, then beat her for the trophy at the French Open last year.

“I played very well for sure. Today I stepped on court super confident and everything went well and once you are in these situations before you know how to handle them better. Definitely that helped me,’’ Muguruza said. – AFP.