World No. 2 Serena Williams beat the 79th-ranked Mirjana Lucic-Baroni 6-2, 6-1 in a clinical display in the semi-finals of the Australian Open on Thursday. Williams crushed her opponent in just 50 minutes to book her place in the final. Bidding for her 23rd Grand Slam title, Williams will face her elder sister Venus Williams for the ninth time in a Major final. The last time the two sisters faced each other in a Grand Slam final was at Wimbledon 2009, which Serena won. Venus Williams beat Coco Vandeweghe 6-7 (3), 6-2, 6-3 earlier in the day.
The first set saw Serena Williams at her usual best, dismantling Mirjana 6-2. The American’s serving has been phenomenal during the entire course of the tournament and, on Thursday, she took it a notch higher against the Croatian. Lucic-Baroni clearly hadn’t recuperated from her three-setter quarter-final clash against Karolina Pliskova and never looked threatening during the entire semi-final. She eventually lost the second set 6-1 and bowed out after a terrific run at Melbourne.
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