MELBOURNE – The two legendary sisters will clash in a Grand Slam final for the first time in eight years. A surprising outcome in one of the most exciting women’s tournament for American tennis in a long time.
Before today’s semifinal at the 2017 Australian Open, Serena Williams and Mirjana Lucic had only played twice with both meetings occurring – believe or not – in the last century. In fact, their last match was played in 1998, almost 20 years ago. When a member of the press asked Serena about the head-to-head with her Croatian opponent, Serena could hardly remember any matches. 35-year-old Serena and 34-year-old Mirjana went into their semifinal knowing that 37-year-old Venus Williams was waiting for one of them in the oldest final in tennis history. The record was previously held by Flavia Pennetta who – at 33 years of age –defeated 32-year-old Roberta Vinci in the most memorable match in Italian tennis history at the 2015 US Open.
Mirjana would have certainly needed at least one day of rest after her exhausting battle with Karolina Pliskova in the quarterfinals. Her left leg was almost entirely strapped with two elastic bands. She had both her thigh and her calf completely wrapped up and her movement was definitely compromised. It is fair to say that a convincing Serena Williams’ win was way too easy to predict. Lucic-Baroni proved to be no match for the tournament’s overwhelming favorite and was easily dismissed in 50 minutes. 62 61 was the final the score in Serena’s favor.
At the end of the match, Mirjana didn’t show any disappointment; she actually took a selfie on center court to celebrate one of the biggest achievements in her unbelievable journey as a tennis player. Her successful comeback to professional sport is one of the most heartbreaking stories in recent Grand Slam history. At this year’s Australian Open, she defeated two of the biggest names in women’s tennis – world No. 3 Aga Radwanska and No. 5 Karolina Pliskova. In her semifinal match against Serena, the Croatian tried to play aggressive but ended up missing too many shots. Her goal was to keep the rallies as short as possible, but in the end things didn’t quite go according to plan. The considerable gap between the two players was palpable throughout the entire match.
The final between Venus and Serena will be Sister Act No. 28 with Serena leading the head-to-head 16-11 and winning 7 of their last 8 matches. It will also be their 14th meeting in a Grand Slam event; only Martina Navratilova and Chris Evert played more Grand Slam match facing each other 22 times. The first professional match between the two sisters curiously occurred at the 1998 Australian Open, when 17-year-old Venus defeated 16-year-old Serena in straight sets.
Venus’ run to this year’s Australian Open final was everything but foreseeable. This will be her first Grand Slam final in 8 years and her first Down Under in 14 years. For that very reason, an all-Williams final showdown in the women’s tournament is even more surprising than a potential Federer-Nadal final in the men’s.
Today Australians were officially celebrating their National Day, although on the tennis court it felt more like the Independence Day of the United States with three of the four semifinalists coming from California and the Williams’ sisters on top of the world once again.
(Article translation provided by T&L Global – Translation & Language Solutions – www.t-lglobal.com)
