MELBOURNE, Australia — Venus Williams became the oldest Australian Open singles finalist of the Open era on Thursday, holding off her powerful 25-year-old American compatriot CoCo Vandeweghe in a three-set semifinal full of winners, errors and intensity. It was a bravura performance — reminiscent of her best tennis earlier in her career — and Saturday’s final will also be…
MELBOURNE, Australia — The sibling rivalry, at least on the tennis tour, started right here at the Australian Open for the Williams sisters. It was 1998, and older sister Venus beat younger sister Serena, 7-6 (4), 6-1, in a second-round match that — as intrusive as it felt to watch — surely drew more attention than any second-round match…
For a few days, Venus smiled — sideways. When Japan’s Akatsuki spacecraft pulled into orbit around Venus in December 2015 and turned on its instruments, it almost immediately discovered a bow-shape feature in the atmosphere stretching 6,000 miles, almost pole to pole — a sideways smile. More remarkably, while Venus’s winds blow at speeds up to 250 miles per…
