The last time Serena Williams and Mirjana Lucic-Baroni played each other, nearly two decades ago at Wimbledon, they were both precocious teenagers just starting their tennis careers.
Now, the two are to meet again in the semi-finals of the Australian Open, a tournament that is starting to have a distinct throwback feel.
The US’ Serena Williams, 35, yesterday reached her 10th consecutive Grand Slam semi-final with a 6-2, 6-3 win over Johanna Konta, while Lucic-Baroni, 34, upset fifth-seeded Karolina Pliskova 6-4, 3-6, 6-4, to advance to her first major semi-final in nearly 18 years.
Photo: EPA
On the men’s side, 30-year-old Rafael Nadal dominated third-seeded Milos Raonic 6-4, 7-6 (9/7), 6-4 to join 35-year-old Roger Federer and 31-year-old Stan Wawrinka in the semi-finals.
It is the first time since the 1968 French Open that three 30-somethings have made the men’s semi-finals at a Grand Slam.
Nadal is to play Grigor Dimitrov, who beat David Goffin 6-3, 6-2, 6-4.
With 36-year-old Venus Williams also reaching the semi-finals in the women’s draw, it is also the first time in the Open era that two players aged 35 or older have reached the final four of a Grand Slam.
Venus Williams is to play compatriot Coco Vandeweghe in their semi-final today.
Serena Williams was tested by Konta in the second set, when the British player broke her to go up 2-1. However, she broke back at love to level the score at 3-3 and saved another break point in her next service game before closing out the match.
Serena Williams finished with 10 aces, but only connected on 45 percent of her first serves overall.
Lucic-Baroni advanced to the last four at a major for the first time since her run to the Wimbledon semi-finals in 1999 at the age of 17.
Lucic-Baroni was surprised she is getting another chance at this stage of her career.
“I know this means a lot to every player to reach the semi-finals, but to me, this is just overwhelming,” she said, in tears, after the match. “This has truly made my life and everything bad that happened, it has made it OK.”
Lucic-Baroni was once considered a prodigy with as much promise as the Williams sisters. She won the first tournament she entered as a 15-year-old in 1997 and several months later captured the 1998 Australian Open doubles title with Martina Hingis.
After Lucic-Baroni’s run at Wimbledon the following year, her career was sidetracked by personal issues and financial problems. She was largely out of the sport for several years before launching a comeback in the late 2000s.
Despite her recent difficulties, Lucic-Baroni said she never lost the belief she could compete at the top of the game.
“When you stop winning as much and you don’t play for a long time, yeah, you definitely lose it a little bit,” she said. “Not even lose it, you forget it... And I’m really glad that I remembered.”
Nadal, whose ranking has slipped to No. 9, also believed he would return to another Grand Slam semi-final, despite struggling with injuries and a lack of confidence in recent years. The last time he made it this far was at the 2014 French Open, where he claimed his 14th Grand Slam title.
The win over Raonic was Nadal’s 50th at Melbourne Park, where he won the title in 2009 and lost in the final in 2012 and 2014. The Spaniard saved six set points in the second set, including two in the 13-minute tiebreaker.
Raonic, who aggravated an adductor injury during the match, had beaten Nadal in their most recent match two weeks ago in Brisbane, Australia.
“Even when I was winning a lot I had doubts, you can imagine I had more when I had injuries,” Nadal said. “I think I had a great career, but at the same time I had a lot of tough moments. That makes me enjoy even more the good moments I’m having today.”
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