Serena Shrugs Off Konta To Reach Melbourne Semifinals
Lucic-Baroni Continues ‘Incredible’ Run
Six-time Australian Open champion Serena Williams powered her way back into the semifinals on Wednesday, moving past ninth-seed Johanna Konta 6-2, 6-3 in one hour and 15 minutes.
Meeting for the first time, Serena came out of the gate firing and quickly established her hold on the match. She broke for a 3-1 lead in the opening set, and relinquished nothing on her own serve. Despite getting less than half of her first serves in play in the first set, she won 85 percent of the points on her first serves and saved the only break point she faced.
“My first serve wasn’t really great, but I’ve really been working on my second serve,” said Serena. “Hasn’t been great all tournament, so I’ve been kind of relying on my second serve. I’ve been relying on my groundstrokes, forehand, backhand. My returns have really picked up.”
Her return game was excellent in the opening set as she broke Konta twice after Konta had only had her serve broken twice all-tournament long prior to Wednesday’s semifinal.
The Australian-born Brit didn’t lay down in the second set as she broke for a 2-1 lead and consolidated it for 3-1. But Serena would win the final five games, holding at love in the last game to move one step closer to her 23rd Grand Slam title.
Despite the defeat, Konta said there is a lot she can take away from playing Serena.
“I think it was probably one of the best experiences of my life. I think there are so many things I can learn from, so many things I can look to improve on, also acknowledge some things that I did well.
She played an almost perfect first set. I felt she really did incredibly well. She just showed and shows why she is who she is.”
In the semifinals, Serena will take on Mirjana Lucic-Baroni, the 34-year old Croat who continued her unbelievable in Melbourne with a 6-4, 3-6, 6-4 over fifth-seed and last year’s U.S. Open finalist Karolina Pliskova.
“This is what I’ve been dreaming about. This is what I’ve been training for,” said Lucic-Baroni. “At 34 years old, like I said before, I have a wonderful home. I’m happily married. I would be perfectly okay being at home enjoying my family.
But I really knew deep down in my soul that I have these results in me. To now be here and actually live these moments, it’s incredible.”
With the run to the semifinals, Lucic-Baroni is slated to crack into the top 30 for the first time in her career. She last made a run to the semifinals of a Grand Slam at Wimbledon in 1999.
The last match between Serena and Lucic-Baroni came all the way back in 1998 at Wimbledon, a straight-sets Serena victory.
“Honestly, we have totally different games now, the both of us. We both have gone through a lot,” said Serena. “We both have survived, and here we are, which I think is a really remarkable story.”
