In a Wimbledon draw where no one seeded in the top five in the semifinals, Johanna Konta is the highest-seeded player in the tournament. Formerly of Australia, Konta now represents Great Britain. As such, she's the fan favorite in this year's Wimbledon draw among the locals. In what is the biggest match of her life, Konta will need to defeat Venus Williams to advance to the Wimbledon final.
Konta into her second major semi
Konta, it should be pointed out, has played in the semifinal of a Grand Slam before. She was in the final four at the 2016 Australian Open, losing just one step ahead of the final.
However, the Wimbledon 2017 semifinal has to be considered a bigger match for her career. Firstly, Wimbledon, as a tournament, is more famous than the Australian Open. Secondly, Konta will become a national hero in Britain if she wins Wimbledon, more so than she would if she is to win any other major in the future.
But where Konta is 0-1 in previous Grand Slam semifinals, Venus Williams got rid of her goose egg from that perspective in the last century. The first time Williams played in a Grand Slam semifinal was back at the 1997 US Open, a match that she won. At Wimbledon specifically, Williams won a semifinal match in 2000 before going on to win the final that year. It was to be her first of five Grand Slams at Wimbledon and her first of seven-to-date overall.
Williams has won tons of semifinals
Williams clearly has the edge in experience when it comes to these big matches. Furthermore, that she will face a partisan British crowd shouldn't bother her to any degree due to her wealth of experience. If anyone crumbles in the match, it is much more likely to be Johanna Konta. She's unproven at this stage of a tournament, and she did face big tests from lesser foes in the earlier rounds.
On the other hand, Konta does hold a slightly favorable record against Williams. The two players have met five times on tour, all in matches from recent seasons. Konta leads their series 3-2, although they have not met on the grass-court surface. On the hard-court surface, which is more similar to grass than clay, Konta is 3-1.
Konta did beat Williams in the only Grand Slam match that they played. Furthermore, Konta defeated Williams in their biggest match to date (in terms of direct ranking points at stake), which was the semifinal of Miami earlier this season.
In what promises to be a heavily covered and entertaining match, Konta's nerves will be put to the test. If they hold up, then there is no reason why the match shouldn't be competitive. However, Konta's nerves will have to hold just to be competitive. Conversely, there really isn't a question of Venus's nerves. You could question her age at this late stage of a major tournament, but at the age of 37, Williams doesn't seem to be slowing down. In the last round, she knocked out tennis' newest baby-faced assassin in 20-year-old Jelena Ostapenko. If someone is to knock Williams out of Wimbledon, then it will take active aggression as opposed to hoping that Williams crumbles.
