Venus hasn’t returned to the Australian final since then and hasn’t reached a Grand Slam final since losing the 2009 Wimbledon title to Serena. I’ve been through a lot.
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“Oh my gosh I’m so excited”, said Williams after closing out the one hour and 48-minute match. “Anytime you feel that way, you continue”. I had to play defence the whole time.
Seven-time Grand Slam champion Venus Williams has booked a place in her second final at Melbourne Park – some fourteen years on from when she last achieved the feat – ousting her younger American counterpart, CoCo Vandeweghe, 6-7 (3) 6-2 6-3.
For the first time since she was runner-up in 2003, Williams is into the last four at the year’s opening grand slam.
Venus plays fellow American Coco Vandeweghe in the other semi-final. Serena won 7-6 (7-3), 6-2. Her best singles performance at a Grand Slam was a quarterfinals appearance at the 2015 Wimbledon Championships.
Only he didn’t expect to be anywhere near the semifinals.
“I really wasn’t feeling all that great out there, I was feeling kind of nervous”, said Vandeweghe.
“Growing up, I’ve always just been wanting to prove people wrong in a lot of different regards”.
“When you play with someone that has the power to hit these kind of shots, and has a good day, I mean, it’s hard, honestly”.
Another tournament surprise has been No. 35 Vandeweghe.
Venus was the first sister to reach the final. “You couldn’t stop it”. “A Williams is going to win this tournament”.
It’s the first time Venus has reached a Grand Slam final since Wimbledon in 2009.
“I want to dictate, but the way she was playing, it was nearly impossible to do so”.
Williams will play the victor of today’s later match between American CoCo Vandeweghe and French Open champion Garbine Muguruza. Her career warmed up again a year ago on her favorite surface, grass, as she cut a swath into the Wimbledon semifinals.
While Williams may have exceeded expectations, the 25-year-old Vandeweghe has played the tournament of her career. Vandeweghe was brilliant in her service while there was an array of confidence in both the players, who were going for the winners.
They’re on opposite sides of the draw, and each is a semifinal win from a classic matchup at Melbourne Park, where Federer is bidding for an 18th major title and where Rafael Nadal is targeting his 15th.
A dominant quarter-final victory over Johanna Konta, one of the tour’s most in-form early players this year, was notice enough but she followed up with an emphatic straight sets win over Lucic-Baroni who was appearing in her first slam semi-final since 1999. The key point came at 3-3, where Williams drilled a forehand victor down the line to gain the advantage.
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“I think there’s so many things I can learn from that, so many things I can look to improve on, also acknowledge some things that I did well”. “I’d like to be a champion”.
