Melbourne (CNN)Judging by the way she plays, Serena Williams will be hard to stop as the Australian Open draws to a close.
Williams saw off ninth-seeded Johanna Konta 6-2, 6-3 at Rod Laver Arena on Wednesday to advance to a 10th straight Grand Slam semifinal and move closer to a record 23rd Major.
“Things went pretty well for me today,” Williams told reporters.
Williams will also recapture Germany’s No. 1 Angelique Kerber if she wins the tournament – and may have to defeat older sister Venus to do so.
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An All-Williams final is still a possibility as Venus meets fellow American CoCo Vandeweghe on Thursday.
With the Williams sisters and Mirjana Lucic-Baroni in the last four in Melbourne, that means three of the four players in the women’s draw are at least 34 years old. Vandeweghe, 25, is the exception.
Lucic-Baroni previously defeated one of the tournament favorites, fifth-placed Karolina Pliskova 6-4, 3-6, 6-4 to start a duel with world No. 2 and her second Grand Slam semi-final notable 18 years later to do The first.
“No matter what happens, someone over 34 will be in the final,” Williams said.
Three years after his first Grand Slam semi-final at Wimbledon, Grigor Dimitrov, number 15, returned to the round of four as the Bulgarian defeated David Goffin 6-3 6-2 6-4.
Dimitrov, who will face either 14-time Grand Slam winner Rafael Nadal or Wimbledon finalist Milos Raonic on Friday, won his 10th straight match. Roger Federer challenges Stan Wawrinka in an all-Swiss scramble on Thursday.
Williams will be the clear favorite against the 79th-placed Croatian, who fled to the United States after saying she was abused by her father.
Facing a difficult draw, the six-time Australian Open champion didn’t drop a set as she edged out Belinda Bencic and Lucie Safarova – two players eliminated from the top 10 solely on health grounds – smart Czech Barbora Strycova and Konta.
Britain’s Konta – a semi-finalist here 12 months ago – joined the event after winning a warm-up event in Sydney.
“Serve wasn’t great”
However, Williams wasn’t particularly happy with her first serve, her most devastating shot.
She hit 10 aces and won 88% of her first serve points, but only served on 45%.
“My first serve wasn’t really great,” she said. “But I really worked on my second serve.”
After a break in set number two at 3-2, the set turned as Williams regained the break by chasing a forehand down the line and a smash before dashing forward to send a forehand winner down the line.
Despite the loss, Konta said that facing Williams was probably one of the best experiences of her life.
“Thanks to her, she played an almost perfect first set,” Konta told reporters. “I felt like she did incredibly well.
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“She just showed and showed why she is who she is.”
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