Agencies
Melbourne, January 29
Serena Williams dispatched fellow American Madison Keys in the last four to set up an Australian Open final against Maria Sharapova.
Williams overcame a spirited challenge from Keys in straight sets to become the oldest Australian Open finalist in the Open Era on Thursday in Melbourne.
The top seed recovered from a break down in the opening set and saw teenager Keys save seven match points before eventually securing a 7-6 (7-5) 6-2 win in an hour and 24 minutes on the Rod Laver Arena.The world No 1 will face second seed Sharapova in Saturday's final after the Russian had earlier defeated compatriot Ekaterina Makarova in straight sets.
"I'm really excited to be in the final again," said the 33-year-old Williams, who is three months older than the previous oldest finalist, 1988 runner-up Chris Evert.
"I didn't come here with that expectation so it's really exciting."
Keys broke serve in the opening game of the match on her way to a 3-1 lead, only for Williams to break back in the sixth game as the pair traded ferocious ground strokes.
Williams moved 6-3 ahead in the tie-break and although Keys saved the first two set points with aces, she could do little about a service winner from Williams on the third.
Williams, who has won the title every time she has advanced beyond the quarter-finals in Melbourne, took command of the second set with two breaks of serve but Keys bravely saved seven match points on her own serve, while one
That meant Williams had to serve out for the match and the 18-time Grand Slam singles champion did so with her 13th ace of the contest.
Sharapova eases through
Sharapova had earlier made it six wins out of six against 10th seed Makarova, winning 6-3 6-2 in an hour and 27 minutes.
Since saving two match points in her second round match with Alexandra Panova, Sharapova has not dropped a set and has lost just 15 games as she seeks to win a sixth Grand Slam singles title.
The 27-year-old had to save two break points in a 10-minute opening game but then promptly broke Makarova's serve to surge into a 4-1 lead.
Makarova briefly threatened a comeback when she broke back to trail 3-4, only to lose her serve again in the next game before Sharapova served out for the set after 48 minutes.
Two more breaks in the first three games of the second set gave Sharapova a commanding lead and the French Open champion was never in danger of letting it go.
"It's so special," said Sharapova after the match. "When you start off the tournament you take it a match at a time and it's been kind of a strange road to get to the final, but I am here and really, really happy."
Sharapova seeks to overturn a decade of Serena dominance
Hostilities in the most titillating rivalry in tennis - and the most one-sided among the long-term elite - will be resumed on Saturday night. When Maria Sharapova says she will do "everything I can" to finally beat Serena Williams, the mind boggles.
More than 10 years and 15 meetings have passed since the Russian last had her way against Williams, who leads her 16-2 overall. Sharapova was just 17 then, and has taken only three sets off the game's modern powerhouse across that decade of dominance.
"I think I was basically underhand serving," she said of that 2004 match in Los Angeles, either a throwaway line or a betrayal of what is not exactly a friendly rivalry.
Infamously, Williams' "black heart" boyfriend jibe about Grigor Dimitrov in 2013 elicited advice from Sharapova about dating her married tennis coach. That verbal serve and return alone added enough spice to enliven a lifetime of subsequent meetings.
"I think my confidence should be pretty high going into a final of a grand slam no matter who I'm facing against and whether I've had a terrible record, to say the least, against someone," Sharapova said on Thursday. "It doesn't matter. I got there for a reason. I belong in that spot. I will do everything I can to get the title."
Williams is 18-4 from 22 grand slam final appearances over her stunning career. She steps onto court on the second Saturday with a killer's cold steel in her eyes, and seeing Sharapova across the net, their fourth meeting in a slam decider, will only harden her resolve.
"Maria is playing great. She's in the tournament only because she's a fighter and only because she refuses to give up," she said after testing a straight sets win over Madison Keys in which she took nine match points to put the rising teenager away.
"So, yeah, it's a new match. She has nothing to lose, once again. She has only things to gain. And I feel that way, too. I feel I don't. I've won this tournament several times. I don't have to go out there and have another title. I want it, but it's not life or death for me.
"I think that helps me to relax. So, yeah, she absolutely has nothing to lose, and I have nothing to lose, so it will be fun."
Sharapova identified power and aggressiveness as the Williams traits that have troubled her most, neither of which she was asked to contend with in a limp semi-final dismissal of compatriot Ekaterina Makarova.
"I think that's always made me a little bit too aggressive, maybe going for a little bit more than I had to," she said of her Williams tale of woe. "You know, she's great at making players hit that shot that you don't necessarily have to go for.
"It's been a really difficult match-up for me, but, you know, I am a competitor. I will go out and I will do everything I can to try to change that result around."
Williams insisted she was simply happy to be in another final, and a first in Melbourne since her fifth Australian Open title five years ago. The cough that has been troubling her is improving by the day, and her US Open win last September is testament that a more carefree approach is working for her.
"It started last year because I was so hyped on getting to 18 (grand slam titles) and I lost every grand slam early. I didn't make it to any quarter-finals. Then after Wimbledon I decided to just not not necessarily not care, but just relax. It all kind of came back for me after that."
Sharapova remembered that 2005 semi, decided 8-6 in the third, as "a very physical battle", one in which she had many chances. "It was a really tough one to lose." She knows Williams will not afford her the luxury of time to set up and swing big, as she did to great effect against Makarova.
Serena has made sport of exposing Sharapova's inferior movement around the court and will see no reason to stop prodding that achilles heel. She is under no illusions about how desperate Sharapova is to buck the trend.
"I think she really wants this. I can see that she wants to do well. She wants to improve her game. She wants to take it to the next level. So, you know, I have to know that she wants to win probably a lot."
Making the semi-finals of the Australian Open gave Madison Keys belief she could contend with the best players in the women’s game, but also made the hard-hitting 19-year-old more determined to take an extra step at the grand slams.
Keys’ fairytale run at Melbourne Park ended with a fighting 7-6(5) 6-2 loss to top seed Serena Williams at Rod Laver Arena, a performance that underlined her claim as a future standard-bearer for American tennis.
As with her quarter-final defeat of Williams’ older sister Venus, Keys betrayed no nerves in the biggest match of her life and easily matched her opponent’s firepower from the baseline, if shaded by her serve and guile.
Instead, Keys flashed her toothy grin repeatedly in the contest, as if going toe-to-toe with the world number one on centre court was just another new and exciting thing in the life of a teenager.
Trailing 5-1 in the second set, she saved seven match points to hold serve in an enthralling 24-point game and an eighth in the next before Williams blasted an ace to put their first ever encounter to bed.
"I think I handled the moment pretty well," Keys told reporters breezily. "I definitely had a good start, so nerves didn’t totally play into that.
"I think in that situation you can almost get overwhelmed if you start focusing on Serena being on the other side of the court. So I really just tried to focus on myself and play within myself. I thought I did a pretty good job."
Williams was quick to ordain Keys, the hardest hitter in the women’s game according to WTA data, a future grand slam champion and even a world number one.
"For me, even this week, as great as it is, I still want more," Keys said. "I think I will forever be that way. So I think for me it’s just never being satisfied with what I’ve done and always just wanting more and more.
"It’s one of those things that, those mornings you don’t want to get out of bed, these are the moments that make yourself get up, go to practice, and do things like that.
"So I’ve definitely put in the work. I’m just really happy to see that it’s paying off. Did I think it was going to happen here? Not particularly. But I’m very happy that it did."
