Anastasia impressed with her comprehensive straight sets victory over dual GS champion and eighth seed Sveta Kuznetsova in the fourth round and would prove a tough nut for Venus to crack.
Venus had shown consistently good form throughout her four matches leading into this match.
Head to head Venus led 3-2 but they hadn't played since 2014.
Williams served first and a confident start hit a roadblock, three errors leading to a break point. She found a way around the problem and held for 1-0.
Anastasia comfortably tied it at 1-1 and then played some fine attacking groundstrokes to break and lead 2-1.
Just as good as Anastasia was receiving the Williams serve, she was ten times as bad serving the next game, dropping it with a final double fault. Venus led 3-2, her game featuring a deep backhand and forehand for winners.
The serve was back on song for Anastasia and she held to love. Not only that she poured the pressure on the Venus delivery, and broke on the first of two chances.
She led 4-3.
A poor choice of drop shot by Anastasia received the punishment it deserved and it ended up costing her a service break.
The Williams forehand began to create havoc and Venus held easily for 5-4.
A double fault and a Venus forehand winner laid the groundwork for three set points for the thirteenth seed.
Another rifled winner sealed the set 6-4 for Venus, and that was one let slip by Anastasia.
Venus held serve and then a marathon game on the Pavlyuchenkova serve saw her battle to stay afloat, watching Williams winners fly by and committing simple errors herself. Luckily for Anastasia neither player could string two points together after deuce arrived for what seemed an hour, until the Russian did it with a passing shot to hold for 1-1.
Then she shocked Venus with a positive returning exhibition, breaking for a 2-1 lead.
Venus broke back, a classy backhand the final winner, then Anastasia evened it up at 3-3. Another long game, this time on the Williams serve, ended in a break to the Russian who led 4-3 as she had in set one.
As in set one Anastasia fell apart on her next serve, losing it to love and games were 4-4. Unlike the first set, Anastasia did hold firm and reach 5-5, but still needed to hold at 5-6 to keep this match going.
Down 0-30 Anastasia fought back to force the tie break.
Up 3-1, Anastasia served a double fault and it unravelled from there, with Venus winning the rest of the points and the match 6-4 7-6 (3).
Venus Williams Aus Open semi finalist in 2017.
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