Serena sweeps Lucic-Baroni, Its a Final between the Williams Sisters

The sisters will face each other in a Grand Slam final for the ninth time at the Australian Open final (late Friday night PT). I’m just really happy for Venus, obviously.

When Mirjana Lucic-Baroni served out her victory over Karolina Pliskova at the Australian Open on Wednesday, making an unlikely return to the semifinals of a Grand Slam after almost 18 years, she fell to her knees, placed her forehead on the court and wept.

Lucic-Baroni in her quarterfinal on Wednesday upset reigning US Open runner-up and No. 5 seed Karolina Pliskova 6-4, 3-6, 6-4.

Ohanian took Williams on a surprise trip to Rome and proposed there because that’s where they first met. Williams later showed off her gorgeous diamond engagement ring in another Reddit post. “So it’s just a moment”. What they’ve done, what they’ve achieved, two sisters, incredible really. “Nothing can break our family. I want to continue having success and playing well and enjoying this, keep going forward”. Her father, Marinko, responded at the time that he “never used excessive force and if I did give her the occasional slap, it was because of her behaviour”. This is something that I couldn’t write a better ending.

But clearly Serena has a more important job to do in Melbourne by trying to add to her haul of 22 Grand Slam singles crowns, so there should not be much room for sympathy down under.

Mirjana Lucic-Baroni takes a selfie photo after being knocked out of the Australian Open.

Venus Williams has won seven major titles, but none since Wimbledon in 2008.

“I just feel like it’s been a while”, said Serena, who crushed unseeded Croatian Mirjana Lucic-Baroni 6-2 6-1 in the semi-finals yesterday. Her last was at Wimbledon in 1999. I mean, that’s a little silly. All around, I feel like she’s a great all-around player.

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Afterwards, she broke down when speaking to commentator and ex-Australian player Rennae Stubbs, saying: “One day I will say a long, big story about the things that happened to me, but I never could dream about being here again”.

The 34-year-old’s dream tournament came to a crushing end at the hands of Serena Williams on Thursday, with the American a runaway 6-2, 6-1 victor in just 50 minutes.

Grigor Dimitrov beat David Goffin 6-3, 6-2, 6-4 to reach his second Grand Slam semifinal. She donated the break right back with a pair of double faults and a missed forehand, only to break again, a brilliant forehand victor putting her ahead 2-1, the server yet to hold in the third set.

They’ll also set some age records, for oldest combined age of a final in the Open era, and the victor will be the oldest champion. Indeed, she has been the fairytale story of this year’s Open. Now the only person standing in her way is her older sister, Venus. And yeah, it was just something I didn’t think about. “She doesn’t have too many weaknesses”.

Belief arrives from winning but she was barely playing.

“It would be attractive”.

“It would be attractive [but] I have to earn it – it’s not a given”.

Williams is known for her pounding forehand winners, but her baseline weapon had been lacking its usual punch in Melbourne, until now. “I’m going to do what I can to earn it”.

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“Thirties is the new 10”, Williams said.