An unstoppable Serena Williams reached a 40th Grand Slam semi-final on Tuesday, overpowering second seed Simona Halep to book an Australian Open last-four showdown with Naomi Osaka.
The 23-time grand slam champion put in a dominant performance against the Romanian, winning 6-3, 6-3, on Tuesday at Rod Laver Arena. It will be the 40th grand slam semifinal of Williams’s career as the 39-year-old looks to equal Margaret Court’s record of 24 career grand slam victories. The American will now face three-time grand slam winner Naomi Osaka in the semifinal after the 23-year-old breezed past Hsieh Su-Wei in just 66 minutes — 6-2 6-2 — in their quarterfinals.
The semifinal between Williams and Osaka will be the pair’s first meeting since the final of the 2018 US Open when Williams accused umpire Carlos Ramos of being a “thief” in some of the most dramatic scenes at a Grand Slam final.
After her victory, Osaka said she would be tuning in to the match between Williams and Halep because she “always” watched the American’s games.
“Now I get to play Naomi,” Williams told in her post-match interview. She also added:
“Honestly, everything is a bonus because the offseason was hard for me. I’m really excited to have gotten this far and obviously, I’m going to continue and keep going.”
