Madison Keys and Serena Williams squared off for a place in the final of the Australian Open on Thursday.
Keys was playing in her first Grand Slam semi-final, while the 33-year-old was looking to reach her sixth final in the competition.
Williams progressed in straight sets 7-6 6-2 to face Maria Sharapova in the final, where she will have a chance to win the 19th Grand Slam title of her career and her sixth in the Australian Open.
Read how all the action unfolded in our commentary below.
Good evening and welcome to the live commentary of the Australian Open semi-final clash between Madison Keys and Serena Williams.
Keys will be competing in her first-ever Grand Slam semi-final after beating Venus Williams in the quarter-finals to set up the clash against the number one seed. The 19-year-old is one of the rising stars of the women's game and she will have to be at her best to match Serena today.
Serena has been in imperious form throughout the competition and dominated Dominika Cibulkova in the last eight of the competition to set up the meeting against her fellow American. The 33-year-old is bidding to reach the final of the Australian Open for the sixth time in her career. Every time she has reached the final of the Australian Open she had won the tournament.
The women have never met in competitive action, but Keys is coached by Lindsay Davenport who faced off against Serena 27 times and had a 13-14 record against the 18-time Grand Slam winner.
Here we go, Serena will serve first in this match.
BREAK! Good start to the game for the 19-year-old as she powers a backhand past Serena to take the lead, while the number one seed slams her next stroke into the net. The 33-year-old battles back with a strong forehand down the line, and then an ace to tie the scores. However, a loose forehand to the back of the court drops out and then Serena slams a backhand into the net to hand Keys a break in the first game.
Keys is looking at ease out there as she slams a forehand winner down the line, while she then forces a miscue from Serena to take a 30-0 lead. An ace follows as she fires a serve right down the middle, which beats Serena for pace, but an unforced errors gifts the 33-year-old a point back. Keys secures the hold as Williams finds the net with a loose backhand. A great start for the 19-year-old.
A loose backhand from Keys gets Serena off to a positive start in the game, and the 19-year-old does it again with a miscued stroke. Williams then double faults, but restores order with a charge to the net that forces a slice from her compatriot and she secures her first game with a powerful serve down the middle.
Keys puts Williams on the back foot with an excellent serve, which the 33-year-old cannot return. Keys does it again as she looks in rhythm on her service game, and that continues as the number one seed can lay a racquet on the next serve as it travels with speed down the middle. Keys gifts a point to Williams with a backhand into the net, but then produces a winner on the next point to secure the hold.
Serena hits her groove on her forehand as she powers a forehand past Keys, and two further powerful strikes off the forehand puts Williams in command of the game. Keys continues to frustrate the number one seed as she fires a backhand winner into the corner before forcing a mistake from the 33-year-old. It forces Serena to focus on her serve and she gets one right out of the screws to bring a miscue from Keys.
BREAK! Williams misses the ball completely on Keys's first serve of the game as he swings and fails to make contact. However, Keys shows a bit of pain on her face due to her injured leg as she double faults. A couple of mistakes hand two break points to the number one seed as Keys fails to control two forehand strokes, but hits back with a powerful strike to the body of Serena. Williams doesn't miss out on her chance as she hits a deep forehand, which can only direct into the net.
The mistakes start to flow from the 19-year-old as she miscues her first backhand of the game, while her forehand then smacks into the net. Williams ups the ante with her third ace of the game before Keys makes another mistake to hand the hold to Serena, who wins her third game in a row.
Keys finds her rhythm on her serve as she fires an ace past Serena's forehand, and then smashes her next forehand at the feet of the 33-year-old who can't dig the ball out. Serena makes a rare mistake as she misses the line with her forehand by some considerable distance and Keys earns the hold with a forehand winner following a short return from Williams. An important game to win for the 19-year-old.
Serena continues her dominance on her serve as he nails an ace to earn her first point of the game, and Keys can't keep the rallies going as well as she would wanted as she fires two strokes into the net. Another error soon follows from the 19-year-old to give the number one seed a relatively easy hold. Williams has the chance to force a break to secure the set.
The points have been relatively short in this game as Keys earns the first off an error from Williams, and she continues to land her first serve in to put the pressure on the 33-year-old. Williams earns a point back late in the game to apply some pressure, but Keys produces an ace at the right moment to secure another important hold.
Keys starts well with a well worked winner as she manoeuvres Williams across the court before firing a forehand into the corner. The duo exchange errors on the next two points, but Williams ups the ante to take a game point with an outstanding lob to the back of the court. The 19-year-old shows her spirit with a powerful backhand down the line, but a couple of loose strokes from Keys hand the game to the world number one.
The 19-year-old finds a brilliant forehand to the corner to take the lead, but then gets extremely lucky on the second point as her forehand clips the net but bounces onto Serena's side of the court. Serena commits an error as she fires a backhand into the net before Keys takes the set to a tie-breaker as she delivers an ace down the middle of the court.
Williams 1-0 Keys
Williams 1-1 Keys
Williams 2-1 Keys
Williams 3-1 Keys
Williams 4-1 Keys - Williams takes control with a mini-break of Keys.
Williams 4-2 Keys
Williams 4-3 Keys
Williams 5-3 Keys
Williams 6-3 Keys - Three set points for Williams.
Williams 6-4 Keys
Williams 6-5 Keys - Two aces from Keys hand her a lifeline.
SET! Williams takes the first set as she fires an ace down the 'T' which Keys can only guide out. An excellent tie-breaker from both players.
BREAK! Good start from Keys as she fires a forehand at the feet of Williams that the 33-year-old can only guide out, and she follows that up with a brilliant ace down the middle of the court. Two bad errors from the 19-year-old bring Williams back into the game, and another hands Serena a break opportunity. The break is Serena's as the forehand from her compatriot is long, which could be a decisive factor in this match.
The mistakes are totting up for the 19-year-old as she drills a backhand into the net. However, she manages to win the next three points in a row with impressive strokeplay on her forehand to bring about a break, but Serena shows her class with an ace to the outside. The errors return from Keys and along with excellent serving from the number one seed, she manages to clinch the hold.
A rocket of a backhand gets Keys off to a good start in her service game and a pinpoint serve follows to hand her control. Two excellent more excellent points follow as she wins her first game of the set, moving the 33-year-old around the court to get herself back on track.
Serena wins the first point of the game as Keys finds the net, but the 19-year-old rallies with two excellent strikes to the back of the court to put the 33-year-old on the back foot in the game. The four-time champion raises the level of her game as she produces an excellent first serve, which forces a mistake from Keys before drilling a shot to the baseline to secure the hold.
BREAK! Keys forces the mistake from the 33-year-old as he fires a forehand deep into the back of the court, but Serena's response is emphatic as she works Keys across the court with her power game to win three points on the spin, and two break points. Keys manages to nail an ace right into the corner on the outside and levels with a fine forehand that Serena can't return. However, the mistakes return from the young American as Williams takes control of the set.
The serving from Williams is of the highest quality as she doesn't give Keys a chance to hit back at her as all four of the shots are on the money, including two aces in a love game. There were four shots played in that game, all by Williams. She is playing at an extremely high level now.
Keys has a fine start to the game with a solid forehand to the back of the court, but Serena comes roaring back to produce the error from the 19-year-old. Keys edges ahead again, only to lose the next two points in a row to stare down the barrel at match point. The serve to stay in the match is excellent from 19-year-old as she clips the line, but Williams earns another with a ferocious backhand, which completely wrong foots her opponent. Keys battles back with another exceptional ace down the middle of the court, but the number one seed finds a backhand winner again. The 19-year-old continues to refuse to face her fate as she saves match point five more times, before taking the game on an error from Williams.
GAME, SET, MATCH! Keys charges the net and wins the point with a backhand volley to the game started, but Williams hits back by winning two of the next point as she hits two pinpoint serves. Keys continues her resistance by battling back with a deep backhand, which Williams cannot return to force deuce. The 19-year-old is forced to save another match, which she does by firing a vicious forehand at the feet of the 33-year-old. However, Williams finally takes the match with an ace down the middle of the court. What a way to finish an impressive match from both players.
Serena Williams displays the quality of her game with an excellent performance to see off the spirited Madison Keys. The 19-year-old matched the world number one for the majority of the match, but Williams had the ability to win the crucial points when needed, while her serving was outstanding throughout the contest. The 33-year-old continued her run of winning every semi-final she has entered in the Australian Open, and will be looking to continue that trend in the final when she takes on Maria Sharapova.
Keys confirmed her status as one of the rising stars of the game as she matched the world number one stroke for stroke in the first set. The 19-year-old appeared to be bothered by her leg injury in the second set, but she also made far too many unforced errors to compete with Williams, although she showed excellent fight to cling on for as long as she could before Serena finally broke her resistance. Keys has a very promising future ahead of her!
Thanks for joining our commentary this morning. Join us later in the morning when Andy Murray takes on Tomas Berdych in their semi-final clash at 8.30am.
Written by
Simon Sinclair
Simon Sinclair
