AFTER the agony of Andy Murray’s exit on Wednesday afternoon, the Centre Court crowd pleaded for Johanna to give them hope. Unfortunately, Jo Konta’s noble quest to become the first home winner of the ladies singles at Wimbledon since Virginia Wade in the Queen’s silver jubilee year of 1977 didn’t stand semi-final scrutiny against an opponent in Venus Williams who appears to have been on the same anti-ageing elixir as Roger Federer.

Fully a year older than the Swiss at 37 years and 29 days, the elder Williams sibling is a grass court specialist who has no intention of being put out to grass. She is already the oldest woman since Martina Navratilova in 1994 to reach a Wimbledon final after this dominant 6-4, 6-2 win against the home favourite. This is, of course, her second Grand Slam final of the season and she would be the oldest woman in the Open Era to win one if she can overcome Garbine Muguruza of Spain in the final. There will be few who witnessed this bravura serving and power-hitting performance willing to bet against her.

It was once said of Murray that he was British when he wins, yet Scottish in defeat. That must mean that Konta this morning is back to being Hungaro-Australian, with a detour along the way from Murray’s old Sanchez-Casal Academy in Spain. But in truth, regardless of the outcome here, 2017 is the year that Wimbledon finally took ownership of this itinerant 26-year-old, following four first round defeats here out of five.

Force-fed a diet of stories about her love of producing muffins for her team, and her affection for Irish rock band U2, her every move was roared as she strode confidently out on Centre Court. That applause reached spine-tingling levels when she forced a first-set break point at 4-3, only for their sighs to echo equally loudly as Venus produced a 106mph second serve ace up the T to break her heart.

“I don’t necessarily think it was the be-all-end-all,” said Konta. “But it definitely took my breakpoint chance away. Her being able to do that is why she is a five-time champion here, and why she is the champion that she is.”

Despite being the winner of three of the five previous meetings between these players, from that moment onward this match was always moving away from the No 6 seed. Her opponent knew now was the time to exert a bit of pressure and a sprinkling of errors culminated in a backhand which flew long on Williams’ second set point. It was the same story when three more break points arrived at 2-1 Williams in the second set, and the whole thing was over within 73 minutes with one last punishing Williams pass down the line.

Yet it would be wrong to say that Konta, having come short in a Grand Slam semi final now for a second time, ha lost herself in the limelight. She was merely beaten by a better woman, one who has reached her ninth Wimbledon final and 16th Grand Slam final in all. Should she take the title, she will be back in the world’s top five and have gained more tour points this year than anyone. And all this, 20 years after his first visit to this tournament, years after she had been considered something of an afterthought as she suffered from auto-immune disorder Sjogren’s Syndrome.

There were words of support from her opponent yesterday. “She played an amazing tournament, she showed a lot of courage, played in tough situations against players who were in form,” said Venus. “I feel like she wants these majors, she’ll have an opportunity. She’s played some amazing matches against me, as well, and this was too.

“I knew I was playing against the home player, that maybe the crowd could get really loud,” she added. “But while I think the crowd really supported her, I didn’t feel like they were against me. It was a really nice atmosphere.”

After the kind of serving day which either would be proud of, Venus said she had grown up idolising Stefan Edberg and Boris Becker and would be sure to pick the brains of her sister Serena, absent here as she awaits the birth of her first child, for pointers about how to tackle the challenge of Muguruza, whom she overcome 6-4, 6-4 in the 2015 final here. “Yeah, Serena did play her in a final,”said Venus. “I definitely will ask her. I’m sure she’s going to give me hopefully some things that will make a difference for me in the match.”

Konta said that she hopes her run has inspired more children to play the game. There seems little doubt about that. “I’d like to think that Andy [Murray] has inspired both girls and boys to play,” she said. “And I’d like to think that I’m doing the same, both girls and boys.”

And defeat thankfully has done little to dampen her belief that she can pick up this title one day. What memory would she treasure the most in years to come? “Well, in years to come, hopefully I’ve gone further, as well,” she said with a laugh. “How about we talk about that in years to come? I’m happy with the matches I played, the way I rose to each challenge,” she added. “I fell at this hurdle, unfortunately. Hopefully next time I will go a step further.”

In the words of her cherished Bono and The Edge, you might say she still hasn’t found what she is looking for.