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As the younger sister, Serena Williams is used to Venus taking the heat. It usually comes with the territory for siblings.
And so it is that Venus bears the brunt of "old girl on tour" questions allowing her 34-year-old sister – less than two years her junior – to slip under the age radar.
Serena kept alive hopes of a ninth all-Williams Grand Slam final on Tuesday with a 6-4, 6-4 Wimbledon quarter-final triumph over Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova. Venus did her bit with a straights-sets result against Yaroslava Shvedova.
Where Serena will hold five years on her semi-final opponent, Elena Vesnina, Venus will have eight years on hers, Angelique Kerber. Still, there was a 17-year age gap when Venus narrowly held off her third-round opponent Daria Kasatkina.
Neither is paying any attention to the numbers.
After claiming last year’s Wimbledon triumph, it is Serena who became the oldest player in the Open Era to win a Grand Slam title and it is Serena who has held the mantel as oldest women’s world No.1 since 2013.
Venus has not enjoyed anywhere near the level of success in the twilight of her career, hence the retirement queries are only amplified. Her first Grand Slam semi-final in seven years will go some way to silencing those.
"It's so cool, it's great," Serena said of the possibility of facing her sister in a Slam final for the first time since Wimbledon 2009.
“I knew she was up 5-1 or 5-2 and then I saw on the court they always show the scores. I was like ‘yaay’.”
Defending champion Serena advanced to her 10th semi-final at the All England Club closing to within two match wins of a seventh Wimbledon crown, a title run which would draw her level with Steffi Graf’s Open Era record of 22 Grand Slams.
Mum Oracene missed the first three games of the match on Centre Court as she made her way across from Venus’s No.1 Court triumph.
She arrived at an opportune point with Serena and Pavlyuchenkova standing toe to toe; neither facing a sole break point until 4-4.
From there, the nerves crept in for the Russian. A missed forehand down the line handed the American three break points and she converted on her first when her 25-year-old opponent double faulted.
Obviously I want her to win so bad, obviously not if I’m in the final. Other than that I want her to win
Serena surged to three set points with two big unreturnable first serves and reeled off her eighth straight point to claim the set when the Russian shanked a backhand off the court.
The second set was a near carbon copy of proceedings in the opener with both players avoiding a break point on serve to 4-4. Again, though, it was Williams piling on the pressure at the crunch.
She snatched the break on a netted forehand from her opponent and brought up two match points on a heavy unreturnable first serve. Pavlyuchenkova saved one with a backhand skidding off a worn patch of grass but the American would close it out with a 126mph ace, her 11th of the match.
The Williams sisters will avoid casting any thoughts to a potential sibling rematch just yet.
“It’d be great. Obviously I want her to win so bad, obviously not if I’m in the final. Other than that I want her to win,” Serena said.
“No I’m just trying to win my match. I knew I had a tough opponent today and now a semi-final. One thing I’ve learnt this year is to just focus on the match.”
Both will be only too happy to field wisecracks about age if another family final eventuates. Two match wins must fall the family’s way first.
