Blast from the past for Serena, Lucic-Baroni
MELBOURNE: An irrepressible Serena Williams kept her recordbreaking Grand Slam dream alive on Wednesday to set up a Australian Open semifinal against someone she last faced in 1998.
The American joined sister Venus in the last four after stepping up a level to oust dangerous Briton Johanna Konta 6-2, 6-3 and end her ninematch winning streak.
Her battling victory keeps intact a potential all-Williams final, with Venus needing to get past fellow American Coco Vandeweghe in the other semi to set-up the nostalgic showdown.
But first Serena, 35, must beat former teenage prodigy Mirjana Lucic-Baroni, 34, who upset fifth seed Karolina Pliskova to continue her heart-warming comeback after her career was derailed by personal issues.
“I’m really happy for Mirjana. I was there when she first started. To see her be able to never give up actually is super inspiring to me. It’s a wonderful story,” said Williams.
The last time they met on court was at Wimbledon 19 years ago, a match the American won.
“It was on centre court. That’s all I remember. I remember winning. I was so excited because I was so young. She obviously was super-young, too. That’s all,” said Williams.
“Honestly, we have totally different games now, the both of us. We both have gone through a lot. We both have survived, and here we are, which I think is a really remarkable story.”
They have travelled vastly different paths.
While Williams has gone on to win 22 Grand Slams, Lucic-Baroni is in her first major semi since 1999, having been off the circuit for many years after fleeing an abusive father and suffering money and injury problems.
She is now back in the limelight MELBOURNE: Rafael Nadal edged closer to a much-anticipated Australian Open final with his great rival Roger Federer after marching into the semifinals on Wednesday.
The 14-time Grand Slam champion was too powerful for injury-hit world number three Milos Raonic, winning 6-4, 7-6 (9/7), 6-4 in two hours 44 minutes. The Spanish superstar will play Bulgaria’s 15th seed Grigor Dimitrov in Friday’s semifinal. He leads Dimitrov 7-1.
Nadal preferred to focus on his next match with Dimitrov rather than contemplating a ninth Grand Slam final showdown with Federer, but he paid tribute to the Swiss legend for his amazing run at this year’s Australian Open. “Let me enjoy today, the victory, being in semifinal. For me is great news again. It’s a good start of the season,” he told reporters.
“Now I have a very tough match against Dimitrov.”
“Whatever happens on the other after coolly dismantling Pliskova 6-4, 3-6, 6-4 in an emotional win.
“To me, this is overwhelming,” she said, sobbing uncontrollably.
“I will never forget this day and the last couple of weeks. This has truly made my life, and everything bad that happened, (it) has made it okay.”
SERIOUS CONTENDER Getting past Williams to keep the fairytale going will be a far tougher test. The victory over Konta marked an incredible 10th successive Grand Slam semifinal for the American, and her 34th overall, reinforcing her remarkable consistency.
She has refused to talk about the possibility of finally surpassing Steffi Graf to win a 23rd Grand Slam and take sole ownership of the Open-era record.
But Williams now has a real chance of doing so to further cement her place as perhaps the greatest player of all time.
If she achieves the goal of winning a seventh Australian Open, it will also propel her back to world number one, after Angelique Kerber snatched the accolade from her last year. side of the draw, I think it is great for tennis that Roger is there again after an injury, after a lot of people talked that probably he would never be back.”
“The real thing is that he’s back and he’s probably ready to win again, fighting again to win a Major.”
“That’s good for the fans because Roger is a legend of our sport. I am happy to be there, too. I am focused on my semifinal.”
It was another accomplished performance from the 30-year-old Spaniard who reached his first Grand Slam semifinal since he won the 2014 French Open, and struggled with injury last year.
“Great. It’s good news. Especially winning against difficult players: (G a e l ) Monfils in quarterfinals, ( Alexander) Zverev round of now Raonic,” Nadal said.
“All of them are top players. So that’s very important for me because 16 and that means that I am competitive and playing well. “I’m so just excited about being back in final rounds of the most important events.”
RANKINGS BOOST It was the 30-year-old Spaniard’s fifth Australian Open semifinal and his 24th in Grand Slams.
Nadal is bidding to win his second Australian Open title and become the first man in the Open era — and only the third man in history — to win each of the four Grand Slam titles twice.
With his victory, Nadal is projected to rise to six in next week’s ATP rankings unless Dimitrov goes on to win the Australian title, in which case he would be number seven. Winning the title in Melbourne would lift Nadal to fourth on the world rankings.
“Obviously he put it together more consistently, much more consistently, than I did today,” Raonic said. “He’s doing a lot of things well. He’s fighting well, which has always been his strongest attribute.” lead as Goffin blew his opening service game with a double fault and two unforced errors, a pattern that was set for the match.
The baseline battle continued in the second set with both players breaking each other’s serve early, but the Bulgarian seized the advantage in the third game with a second break and then again in the seventh when he broke again.
Dimitrov, seeded 15th, wrapped up the second set with a forehand pass that swerved around Goffin at the net. Dimitrov’s potent forehand got him out of trouble several times as he forced Goffin wide or left him with no shot after landing the ball right at the Belgian’s feet. — Reuters