Venus Williams into Australian Open final

This is why people live and die for sport, because you can’t fake it.

The Williams sisters facing off in a Grand Slam final hasn’t happened since Serena beat Venus in that 2009 match, but it’s about to happen for the ninth time overall Saturday.

It was Venus who knocked Serena out in round two on her Grand Slam debut 19 years ago, and they have since played eight major finals against each other. The previous high came at the 2015 US Open final between Flavia Pennetta and Roberta Vinci (66 years).

They have met eight times previously in Grand Slam finals and only twice have their matches gone three sets.

“Nothing can break our family”.

I’ve played with a lot of players over the years and there’s some who you build friendships with and there’s others you don’t. This is a story. This is something that I couldn’t write a better ending for. “It’s a great situation”.

Which Williams sister will make history?

For Serena, a year younger, the clash with Venus represents another chance to overhaul Steffi Graf’s record tally of 22 grand-slam titles, after last year’s US Open campaign was ended at the semi-final stage.

On Thursday, Serena waylaid Mirjana Lucic-Baroni in the kind of fashion that’s become routine for the greatest player of her generation.

The Croatian reached her last major semi-final at Wimbledon in 1999, when she was 17, but lost most of her career to personal trauma after being forced to flee an abusive father. And while she has seven Grand Slam singles titles in her career, she’s never won the Australian Open.

“She’s my toughest opponent”, Serena Williams said of her sister, according to The New York Times. She had 31 winners, including 14 on her powerful forehand side.

At an age when most athletes are already retired or just hanging on until retiring, Serena is ranked second by the Women’s Tennis Association and is still the most feared player on the tour. I haven’t seen Serena play this well in a couple of years, and that includes her Wimbledon championship last year. “I would love to be out here and I would more than anything love to see her across the net from me on Saturday”, Venus said. I can compete against any odds. “I was feeling a little pressure about that, but it felt really good to get that win”. This is significant, but it’s also worth noting that there really isn’t another woman in tennis who could beat Serena 11 times in any situation. Then, okay, won’t be an easy match.