Williams finished with eight aces for the match – after none in the first set – and has dropped only 26 games in six rounds in a dominating run that included a 6-4, 6-1 win over No. 5 Maria Sharapova in the quarterfinals, a rematch of the 2015 final. “She’s an incredibly intense, focused player who was No. 1 and has won so many Grand Slams for a reason”.
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Fourth seed Radwanska earlier blasted into her fifth career Grand Slam semi-final with a 6-1 6-3 mauling of Carla Suarez.
Her performance was so complete, 18-time major victor Chris Evert asked her fellow TV commentators on ESPN, “How can you say she’s not the greatest of all time when she plays like this?”
The victory puts her just one win away from matching Steffi Graf’s Open-era Grand Slam record of 22 titles, with Margaret Court’s all-time mark of 24 edging closer.
Like Serena Williams before him, Novak Djokovic moved into another Australian Open championship decider with a relatively untroubled semifinal win. Second seed and four-time finalist Murray defeated the home hope 6-4, 6-4, 7-6(4) in two hours and 30 minutes for a place in his seventh straight quarter-final at Melbourne Park.
Sharapova had fired 21 aces in her previous round against Belinda Bencic.
Williams, who improved her career record over Sharapova to 19-2, will play No. 4-seeded Agnieszka Radwanska in the semifinals.
In a titanic first set, No. 5 Sharapova broke Williams in the opening game and then held.
She went on a five-game roll until Sharapova held in the second set, and then finished it off in the seventh game after saving break points.
The Russian showed character to storm back from 0-40 down to hold serve for 4-4 and was all over Williams’s serve in the next game, the American yelling “C’mon!” on successive points as she finally held.
Williams broke for a second time to take the first set in 55 minutes but only after the top seed had mucked up three set points, twice thundering returns into the net. Sharapova fought back in the next go-round, forcing four set points before dropping the first set.
“It’s obviously always frustrating”, Sharapova said. “Still very happy with the result, happy with my game, for all the matches here”, she said.
“But I think the nerves will be getting better when I’m out there in the final”.
“I don’t think last year she had a big year in terms of level of play”, Mouratoglou told a pair of reporters in the player restaurant.
“I’m really excited to be in another final, it kind of blows my mind right now”, said Williams, 34. Unbelievable serve. Everything, she was going for it. I couldn’t do much.
“I didn’t start out playing that way”. Doesn’t matter who I’m playing, I just try to go out there and play the best I can. I think she will go out there and she knows that she must play also good tennis to beat me.
“I don’t have to win this tournament or any other tournament for as long as I live”. I don’t know. It’s something about her game.
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Australian-born Johanna Konta, who now has British citizenship, plays a women’s semifinal against Angelique Kerber on Rod Laver Arena after defending champion Serena Williams takes on Agnieszka Radwanska. “Certainly I was trying to just concentrate on the match when I was out there, but, like I said, it’s been a hard, hard few days”.
