Agencies
Melbourne, January 28
World number one Serena Williams blasted her way into the Australian open semi-finals with a straight sets win over Slovak Dominika Cibulkova.
Despite battling a cold, Serena Williams was in top form crushing last year's finalist Dominika Cibulkova 6-2, 6-2 in just over an hour.She will play her 26th major semi-final against fellow American Madison Keys who will be taking part in her first after earlier beating older sister Venus Williams.
Serena was devastating against Cibulkova refusing to let her opponent to gain any momentum.
Trailing 2-1 in the second set, Cibulkova did manage to bring up two break points but Williams too them off her just as quickly to hold serve.
Her serve was never threatened for the rest of the match and she finished with 15 aces to Cibulkova's one.
Williams said after the match she knew she had to play well to get past Cibulkova.
"I just knew that I had to be good today because she was in the final and she plays really well on this court," Serena Williams said.
"I am just happy to be able to come through."
Williams produced 31 winners and won 83 per cent of her first serves, compared to Cibulkova winning just 52 per cent of her first serves.
Madison Keys advances to first major semi-final
Madison Keys reached her first grand slam semi-final with a 6-3, 4-6, 6-4 quarter-final victory over seven-time major champion Venus Williams.
Keys put on a spectacular display of power hitting against Williams, who she credits as the reason she started playing tennis.
"Very happy that I'm in the semi-final but the moment's definitely sweeter being able to play Venus," Keys said.
It is not often that either Williams sister is overpowered, but that is exactly what happened on Wednesday as Keys blasted 34 winners as opposed to Williams' 10.
Both players fought off early break points and things remained on serve through the first six games, but in the seventh, Keys found her range with her forehand cannon and picked up the break.
That appeared to spark something in the 19-year-old who won eight of the next nine points, charging through a service game and breaking to love to take the first set on the back of 14 winners.
The second started in a similar vein, with the on-fire Keys holding to love, but her accuracy abandoned her, and when she sent a backhand into the net for her 11th unforced error in just four games, Williams suddenly had the double break and a 4-1 lead.
Immediately after, Keys called for the trainer and went off for some work on an injury to her left leg, which she later admitted was a slightly muted recurrence of the injury that forced her to withdraw during the third round of Wimbledon last year.
She returned five minutes later with strapping around her left thigh and whatever the doctors did appeared to work as she broke to love in the ensuing game before holding to make it 3-4.
"I felt it since the beginning. It's been tight, but it's been something that with some treatment its been fine," Keys told reporters after the match.
"Then one shot in the match, all of a sudden I felt it kind of really get tight. I thought I was close to pulling it. I ignored it at Wimbledon and tore it, which ultimately made me have to withdraw.”
"At that moment, it was kind of a panic of 'I need to get some tape on this so I don't do that again'."
"It's one of those things where it's probably going to hurt, I'm probably going to have tape on it, but I'm just going to do my absolute best and enjoy the moment."
Williams still had a break of serve in her back pocket but, apparently rattled by the injury timeout, lost it as Keys rediscovered her form from the back of the court to knot the score at 4-4.
Typical of the match, Williams stole the break right back to give herself a chance to serve for the set, prompting another visit from the medical staff for Keys.
But this time Williams was not distracted and promptly won the set with an ace despite only managing two winners, rather relying on a whopping 18 unforced errors from the other side of the net.
With her first major semi-final since the 2010 US Open in sight, Williams snagged the first break to go up 2-1 in the third set but Keys got it back soon after to make it 3-3.
Holding serve appeared to be the greater feat as the pair traded breaks, the 10th and 11th of the match, to keep things all square at 4-4.
Keys moved within one game of a historic victory with a swinging ace and only needed one match point to progress to the final four of a slam for the first time in her career.
