History of the Serena vs. Venus Williams rivalry at the Australian Open

– At 36, Williams is the oldest Australian Open finalist in the Open era, which began in 1968. I felt she really did incredibly well.

“To have that thought that there’s going to be at least one US player in the final is great for American tennis”, Venus said.

Venus Williams beats Coco Vandeweghe to reach her first Grand Slam final for eight years at the Australian Open.

The six-times champion was all but untouchable when her first serve hit the mark and she sealed the win when Lucic-Baroni smashed a forehand into the net, reaching her 29th grand slam final where she will bid for a 23rd major title.

The American joined sister Venus in the last four after stepping up a level to oust unsafe Briton Johanna Konta 6-2, 6-3 and end her nine-match winning streak.

“My expectation was not to play Stan Wawrinka in the semis”. Venus clinched the third set 6-3.

Williams succeeded in finding the target on less than half of her first serves but cleaned up the points on 88 percent of the occasions when she did.

Only he didn’t expect to be anywhere near the semifinals. So I feel like I had to be on it all around today. “I don’t shy away from a challenge necessarily”.

It was just earlier this month that Vandeweghe lost to a qualifier ranked outside the top 100 in the second round of a tune-up tournament in Sydney. She beat top-ranked Angelique Kerber, who won the Australian and U.S. Open titles previous year, in the fourth round.

The 13th seed battled back from a set down to beat unseeded Vandeweghe, growing in confidence as the match progressed to seal her three-set triumph in 2hrs, 25mins.

An irrepressible Serena Williams kept her record-breaking Grand Slam dream alive yesterday to set up a Australian Open semi-final against someone she last faced in 1998. “I’ve got nothing else to do so let’s keep it going”. “You couldn’t stop it”.

Williams made her professional debut as an unranked wildcard in 1994 at a Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) tournament in Oakland, CA – up the coast from her home in Compton.

Williams didn’t reach the quarterfinals at any of the Grand Slams from 2011 until the 2015 Australian Open. The last time the two met in a Grand Slam final was at Wimbledon in 2009, which was also the last time Venus Williams appeared in any Grand Slam final. But this past week, Vandeweghe has beaten three seeded players, including No. 1 Kerber-a match that saw the American blast 30 winners to 20 unforced errors.

“Oh, my gosh, it means so much, mostly because she played so well”, Venus said afterward, praising Vandeweghe. Venus Williams hasn’t returned to a final at Melbourne Park.

But Venus isn’t thinking about any opponent in particular, just the end result. “I think there are so many things I can learn from that, so many things I can look to improve on, also acknowledge some things that I did well”.

“Everybody has their moment in the sun; maybe mine has gone for a while”. I’d like to be a champion, in particular this year.

“I’m so excited to get on the practice court”.