The 36-year-old, who last made it this far at Wimbledon in 2009, battled to victory over Kazakhstan's Yaroslava Shvedova.

She will now play Germany's Angelique Kerber for a place in the final, while Serena will face Elena Vesnina of Russia.

“This is an awesome day,” said the elder Williams sister.

“I love playing the game, I always have. 

"Of course when you’re winning matches it’s sweeter but the wins and the losses always lead to this moment. 

"I would love to be walking to the final, and progress made today.”

It was not always plain sailing for Venus, who was forced to recover from 5-2 down in a first set tie break against the world number 96 before roaring back to win 7-6, 6-3.

She becomes the oldest semi-finallist since a 37-year-old Martina Navratilova reached the last-four in 1994.

Serena was similarly impressive in beating Russia's Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 6-4, 6-4.

Kerber, the fourth seed, beat Romanian fifth seed Simona Halep 7-5, 7-6 in the first match on Centre Court today.

Unseeded Russian Vesnina ended the run of 19th seed Slovakian Dominka Cibulkova 6-2, 6-2 in the remaining quarter-final.

The Williams sisters also remain in the women's doubles competition.

Men's singles action is due to resume tomorrow with the four quarter-finals.