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Serena Williams has never lost in the Ausralian Open once reaching the semifinals. On Thursday she kept the streak alive, defeating fellow American Madison Keys in the semifinal to reach her sixth Australian Open final.
Keys was on a tremendous run of her own, advancing beyond the third round of a Grand Slam for the first time in her young career. Just 19 years old, she defeated No. 4 Petra Kvitova and No. 18 Venus Williamsen route to the semis.
She continued fighting as she faced off against Williams on Thursday, both of them wearing neon green and pink Nike outfits. The first set went to a tiebreak, with Williams prevailing 7-5 to claim the advantage. In the second set, Keys held off nine match points before finally faltering.
The final score, 7-6, 6-2, hardly indicates how hard Keys made Williams work to make it to her sixth Australian Open final and first since 2010. The younger American hit more winners than Williams (27-19) and had 12 aces, but she did herself in with 39 unforced errors..
Serena Williams of the U.S., left, is congratulated by her compatriot Madison Keys after winning their semifinal …
“She pushed me really hard in that first set and I had to dig deep mentally to get through that,” Williams said afterward. “She’s a great player – I think she’s going to be winning this event soon, and many other Slams.”
Williams will be going for her 19th Grand Slam title in the final – a tally that would put her in second place on the all-time list. Currently, she’s tied with Martina Navratilova and Chris Evert with 18 titles. Only Steffi Graf has won more, with 22 to her name.
She’ll face No. 2 Maria Sharapova, the 2008 Australian Open champion. Her chances look good, as Williams leads head-to-head 16-2, and hasn’t lost to Sharapova since 2004.
| DrawWTA – DOUBLES: Australian Open (Australia), hard | |||||||||||||
| 00:30 | Mattek-Sands B./Safarova L. | – | |||||||||||
| Chan Y. J./Zheng J. | – | ||||||||||||
| DrawCHALLENGER – SINGLES: Bucaramanga (Colombia), clay | |||||||||||||
| 11:30 | Gimeno-Traver D. (Esp) | – | |||||||||||
| Estrella V. (Dom) | – | ||||||||||||
| 13:00 | Bagnis F. (Arg) | – | |||||||||||
| Haider-Maurer A. (Aut) | – | ||||||||||||
| 15:00 | Melzer G. (Aut) | – | |||||||||||
| Elias G. (Por) | – | ||||||||||||
| 18:00 | Falla A. (Col) | – | |||||||||||
| Samper-Montana J. (Esp) | – | ||||||||||||
| DrawCHALLENGER – SINGLES: Hong Kong (Hong Kong), hard | |||||||||||||
| 23:45 | Set 1 | Myneni S. (Ind) | 0 | 1 | 40 | ||||||||
| Edmund K. (Gbr) | 0 | 3 | 30 | ||||||||||
| 00:00 | Nishioka Y. (Jpn) | – | |||||||||||
| Desein N. (Bel) | – | ||||||||||||
| 01:00 | Devvarman S. (Ind) | – | |||||||||||
| Ito T. (Jpn) | – | ||||||||||||
| DrawCHALLENGER – SINGLES: Maui – Hawaii (USA), hard | |||||||||||||
| 11:00 | Donaldson J. (Usa) | – | |||||||||||
| Novikov D. (Usa) | – | ||||||||||||
| 11:00 | Ehrat S. (Sui) | – | |||||||||||
| Klahn B. (Usa) | – | ||||||||||||
| 11:00 | Garanganga T. (Zim) | – | |||||||||||
| Meister N. (Usa) | – | ||||||||||||
| 11:00 | Kozlov S. (Usa) | – | |||||||||||
| McGee J. (Irl) | – | ||||||||||||
| DrawCHALLENGER – DOUBLES: Bucaramanga (Colombia), clay | |||||||||||||
| 11:30 | FRO | Cuevas M./Pella G. | – | ||||||||||
| Duran G./Molteni A. | – | ||||||||||||
| 16:30 | FRO | Kretschmer G./Satschko A. | – | ||||||||||
| Barrientos N./Struvay E. | – | ||||||||||||
| DrawCHALLENGER – DOUBLES: Hong Kong (Hong Kong), hard | |||||||||||||
| 02:30 | FRO | Myneni S./Singh S. | – | ||||||||||
| Desein N./Ebden M. | – | ||||||||||||
| DrawMIXED DOUBLES: Australian Open (Australia), hard | |||||||||||||
| 23:10 | Set 2 | Hingis M./Paes L. | 1 | 7 | 1 | 40 | |||||||
| Hsieh S-W./Cuevas P. | 0 | 5 | 1 | 15 | |||||||||
| 00:20 | Mirza S./Soares B. | – | |||||||||||
| Mladenovic K./Nestor D. | – | ||||||||||||
| DrawITF MEN – SINGLES: Castelldefels (Spain), clay | |||||||||||||
| 06:00 | FRO | Granollers-Pujol G. (Esp) | – | ||||||||||
| Toledo B. P. (Esp) | – | ||||||||||||
| 07:30 | FRO | Ojeda L. R. (Esp) | – | ||||||||||
| Panfil G. (Pol) | – | ||||||||||||
| 09:00 | FRO | Ramirez-H.R. (Esp) | – | ||||||||||
| Ouahab L. (Mar) | – | ||||||||||||
| 10:30 | FRO | Hamou M. (Fra) | – | ||||||||||
| Giustino L. (Ita) | – | ||||||||||||
| DrawITF MEN – SINGLES: Nussloch (Germany), hard (indoor) | |||||||||||||
| 07:00 | FRO | Bemelmans R. (Bel) | – | ||||||||||
| Haerteis J. (Ger) | – | ||||||||||||
| 09:00 | FRO | Marterer M. (Ger) | – | ||||||||||
| Torebko P. (Ger) | – | ||||||||||||
| 10:30 | FRO | Michalicka M. (Cze) | – | ||||||||||
| Masur D. (Ger) | – | ||||||||||||
| 12:00 | FRO | Fallert F. (Ger) | – | ||||||||||
| Laaksonen H. (Sui) | – | ||||||||||||
| DrawITF MEN – SINGLES: Palm Coast (USA), clay | |||||||||||||
| 11:00 | FRO | Arevalo M. (Sal) | – | ||||||||||
| Paul T. (Usa) | – | ||||||||||||
| 11:00 | FRO | Heras P. (Arg) | – | ||||||||||
| Quinzi G. (Ita) | – | ||||||||||||
| 11:00 | FRO | Tiafoe F. (Usa) | – | ||||||||||
| Balleret B. (Mon) | – | ||||||||||||
| 12:30 | FRO | Opelka R. (Usa) | – | ||||||||||
| Smith C. (Usa) | – | ||||||||||||
| DrawITF MEN – SINGLES: Sunderland (United Kingdom), hard (indoor) | |||||||||||||
| 07:00 | FRO | Cox D. (Gbr) | – | ||||||||||
| Marsalek J. (Gbr) | – | ||||||||||||
| 07:00 | FRO | Ward A. (Gbr) | – | ||||||||||
| Roy M. (Fra) | – | ||||||||||||
