Venus Williams and Johanna Konta completed the semi-final roundup in the second top-half of the women’s draw at the 2017 Miami Open. In both matches that were played on Wednesday, the American won her quarter-final match against World No 1 and top-seed, Angelique Kerber, while the Briton defeated the third seed Simona Halep.

The eleventh seed Williams notched the biggest upset of the tournament in defeating Kerber. The three-time former Miami Open champion won in straight sets 7-5, 6-3 in an hour and 39 minutes and is now the oldest remaining player in the women’s singles draw.

Although the 36-year-old served poorly as compared to her opponent, putting in only 45% of her first serves to Kerber’s high 71%, she was able to effectively dictate the proceedings. Kerber’s defensive tactics gained no purchase with the American and even as the first set was tightly contested, the second swayed more deeply in the seven-time Major champion’s direction.

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In her post-match interview, Williams too noted, “It was an interesting match. I was controlling it. I had more errors than I like and lower first serve percentage than I would like. For me, I’m looking at it from a standpoint of how can I get better.”

Johanna Konta stuns Simona Halep

Meanwhile, Konta won the match after being down a set-and-a-break against Halep. Konta, who became the first Briton to reach the semi-finals in Miami, prevailed 3-6, 7-6(7), 6-2 in two-and-a-half hours.

The Romanian took a convincing lead in the match as she served out the opening set, and looked set to serve out the match in the 10th game of the second set. However, Konta bounced back, first by breaking back to level the second set at 5-5, before edging out in the tie-break 9-7. In the deciding set, Konta broke Halep twice and faced no break points on her serve to advance further in the draw.

Konta leads Williams 2-1 in their head-to-head. Williams won their first meeting in the quarter-final of the 2015 Wuhan Open, but Konta won both their latter two meetings in 2016, in the first round of the Australian Open and in the final of the Stanford Open.

Martina Hingis and Yung-Jan Chan win, Elena Vesnina and Ekaterina Makarova ousted

Fifth seeds Martina Hingis and Yung-Jan Chan defeated Andreja Klepac and Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez in the women’s doubles quarter-final on Wednesday. The Swiss-Chinese Taipei pair won in straight sets, 6-4, 6-2 and will have a rematch of their Indian Wells quarter-final showdown against third seeds Sania Mirza and Barbora Strycova.

The unseeded Canadian-Chinese duo of Gabriela Dabrowski and Yifan Xu upset the second seeded Russian team of Elena Vesnina and Ekaterina Makarova. Dabrowski and Xu won in straight sets as well, 7-6(3), 6-1. They will take on fourth seeds Andrea Hlavackova and Shuai Peng for a spot in the final.