Williams seeking to join Graf with Australian Open Win

The world number one was in a different class in 2015 as she swept to the Australian Open, French Open and Wimbledon titles, losing just three matches out of 56 all season.

Kerber has beaten Williams once, in Cincinnati in 2012, but she has lost all of their other five meetings without winning a set. “I was just standing there kind of watching her playing”, Radwanska added.

“She was my idol. She still is my idol”, Kerber said in her pre-match press conference. I know that she brings a lot, you know, to the game.

None of that bodes well for Kerber, despite how strong she has looked in the tournament-especially in the win over Azarenka, who is a similar player to Williams from a power perspective. After winning 12 straight sets while hardly breaking a sweat, she’s once again staring down Steffi Graf’s Open Era record of 22 Grand Slam titles.

The No. 4-ranked Radwanska broke Williams’ serve to level the second set at 3-3, but Williams broke Radwanska’s serve in the ninth game and closed with three aces and a forehand victor to win the match in 1 hour, 4 minutes.

Kerber, for her part, is looking to become the first German to win a major since Graf won her last one in 1999.

The 2016 Australian Open women’s final will feature two players at the opposite ends of the tennis spectrum, as No. 1 Serena Williams goes for her 22nd Grand Slam title while No. 7 Angelique Kerber searches for her first.

Not if Serena continues to play the way she’s played throughout the tournament.

And so the stage is set for what should be a cracking final as world number one Serena Williams attempts to lay the first stone towards a possible Golden Calendar Slam, achieved only by Steffi Graf in 1988. The German is a similarly sturdy, defensive-minded retriever with a knack for making her opponents make mistakes, and she hits the same crouching groundstrokes that allow her to hold the baseline and dig out deep balls.

Williams threatened to embarrass her semi-final opponent Agnieszka Radwanska on Thursday, annihilating the Pole 6-0 in a first set that took just 20 minutes. “So I’m going to hopefully take that to the court for not only this tournament but for the rest of these slams”.

“I just saw that”.

“That was the change also for my mentality and my nerves, what I have actually before every match”.

Williams has been close to flawless on her way to the final.

“I think from then on out I’ve been really focused that she’s someone that I, and everyone, really has to take very seriously”. “I think he’s a pretty awesome player, footballer”. She’s been very consistent this year already.

Djokovic, who has won all five finals he’s played at Melbourne Park, beat Roger Federer in four sets Thursday to advance to Sunday’s championship decider.

Williams is the overwhelming favorite in her final against Kerber, and not just based on recent form. At that time, she had led their head-to-head record 2-1. I think she will go out there and she know that she must play also good tennis to beat me.

Her performance was so complete, 18-time major victor Chris Evert asked her fellow TV commentators on ESPN, “How can you say she’s not the greatest of all time when she plays like this?” “Yeah, I definitely need some good R&R”. She tends to play an all-court game, which caused problems for Williams as she lost footing and played too stiff.