Sports

Australia Open

In the semi-final of this year Australia Open, record chasing Serena Williams will rekindle her rivalry with her 2018 US open nemesis Naomi Osaka.

Serena defeated two-time grand slam champion Simona Halep, 6-3, 6-3, to scale through to the last four, while Naomi breezed past Su-Wei Hsieh 6-2, 6-2.

After cracking Halep’s serve in the fifth frame, 39-year-old Serena climbed to a four-two lead in the first set and kept serve thereafter.

As the American broke again in the seventh game and finished off the set in the ninth game with a 40-love victory, Serena’s firepower was too much for Halep to tackle.

In the sixth round, Serena rallied back to equal score level and never looked back as she was cruising to victory.

The 2018 open final, which was dominated by a drama between Serena and the chair umpire, will relive the meeting with Osaka.

Serena was engaged in numerous confrontations with an umpire who, by getting orders from her coach, had suspected the American of cheating. She refuted the accusation and called the official a liar.

In the 6-2, 6-4 final, Naomi beat Serena to win her first grand slam title, becoming the first Japanese woman to do so.

On the men’s side, Aslan Karatsev began his sensational run at the Australian open into the semi-finals on Tuesday (February 16) when he shocked Grigor Dimitrov 2-6 6-4 6-1 6-2 to become the fifth qualifier in the open era to hit the last four of a men’s grand slam.

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Ihesiulo Grace

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