Melbourne, Jan 28 (IANS) Top seed Serena Williams raced through her Australian Open tennis semi-final against No.4 seed Agnieszka Radwanska, clinching a 6-0, 6-4 victory with a flurry of aces here on Thursday.
The American heads into her seventh Australian Open final having maintained her perfect semi-final record in Melbourne (7-0) and without dropping a set through her first six matches.
But the World No.1 was never more dominant than she was on Thursday, hitting 18 aces to only four unforced errors in the opening set alone (finishing with 42 winners), allowing Radwanska only seven points in a 20-minute rout.
“I’m really excited to be in another final; it kind of blows my mind. I just feel like I’m playing the best I can and I can’t believe I’m in the final!” the 21-time Grand Slam champion said after the match.
“Physically, I’m feeling a lot better, and mentally I needed that break after the US Open. But I didn’t think I’d be doing so much, so fast; so thank you so much for all of your support,” she added, addressing the crowd.
A former World No.2, Radwanska pulled up more soundly in the second set, levelling proceedings at 3-3 after falling behind an early break. It only pushed Williams to produce her best tennis in the final game – which she opened with three of the eight aces she hit on the day.
“I love it in Australia; it’s the only tournament that I play that if I lose early, I still hang out,” Serena said.
“Sometimes I’m on the last flight back out to the US. It’s just a fun place to be and the crowd has always been really awesome for me. Everyone was nervous for me that I was taking four months off, but this is a big year for me, and I wanted to improve and do better. That’s what I did.”