The 2016 women’s Australian Open final is all set and will take place on Saturday evening in Melbourne between Serena Williams and Angelique Kerber. This will be the final ‘Set Points’ of the tournament… I’ve really enjoyed producing this new feature and hopefully you have enjoyed it too! I am planning to keep it up it for the other Slams and other tournaments too when I have the time.
The second of the semi-finals was always going to produce a first time Grand Slam finalist and it was Angelique Kerber who prevailed, defeating Johanna Konta, 7-5 6-2.
Here are some pics/videos from inside Rod Laver Arena of Kerber’s win.
This was from Kerber’s post-match interview haha
This was a super fortnight for Konta who will break into the world’s top 30… Here is her final press conference after today’s match.
Once again, it’s worth pointing out that Kerber saved a match point in her first match of the tournament against Misaki Doi. This has happened a lot at the Australian Open in the past few years (see tweet below), but elsewhere too. Presented with a kind of second chance, I would guess that it almost takes some of the pressure away having been on the brink of booking the flight home.
This is still relevant… I really enjoyed this piece by Matt Zemek on Attacking the Net on Angelique Kerber after her quarter-final win over Victoria Azarenka on Wednesday.
In the first semi-final, Serena Williams continued her dominance over Agnieszka Radwanska, cruising through the first set and encountering a bit of resistance in the second set but still winning comfortably, 6-0 6-4. Her stats were amaaaazing.
The game to serve it out was also amaaaazing.
And a nice handshake!
In the first of the men’s semi-finals, Novak Djokovic defeated Roger Federer in four sets, 6-1 6-2 3-6 6-3. Check out the point of the match in the tweet below… wow! The second semi-final between Andy Murray and Milos Raonic is on Friday where i’d actually go for Raonic. Still, I don’t fancy either Murray or Raonic to challenge Djokovic in the final.
And finally, entry list news… Venus heading back to Indian Wells!
I managed to wake up for the second set of Kerber-Konta today which was worth it just to witness Kerber’s joy at the end… I am sooooo glad today was the last day of nocturnal tennis watching.
Moo's Tennis Blog 
I’ll be overjoyed if Serena and Nole both win. Both were so convincing in their semi final matches. Djokovic played two of the best sets of tennis he’s ever played. If it werent for the crowd being 80% Fed fans theres no way he’d have gotten that third set.
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Never in doubt about the result. With Roger(currently), your numero uno strategy is to get the first set. After that, it’s game on. Novak’s approach was right up there with the best of them. In a sense, it also shows you the level of respect he has for his opponents game to come out basically firing on all cylinders as they say. I’m thinking Raonic may be more of an unknown than Murray at this point and he may have the better chance to cause an upset. But, I could also be wrong.
As for Kerber, honestly, what can Kerber do to derail Serena in her current form. Someone commented that she is an irresistable force and her opponent has to become an immovable object to begin to work this one out. Radwanska, I even feel the serenity she had when she eloquently put it this way. Even in the first set, she still had her strategy, but such was the level of tennis from her opponent that she couldn’t execute, that is, she was being shut down. This was why she was able to plug away in the 2nd set when Serena’s level dropped, making it respectable. She was alive all the time in the first set but merely relegated to being a passenger. Her words -I did not play badly, Serena was just too good.
I think Kerber has to be Kerber and some. Nothing to lose, everything to gain, read the game carefully, play safely and attack as soon as the opening arrives. In other words be super alert. Still will be of scant help if Serena plays like she did in that first set against Aga. We’ll see, stranger things have happened before.
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Fed played horrible, over hitting ball and was rushing. Kerber did not played well at all. She went back retrieving balls. Novak and Serena came out on fire.
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Reblogged this on Tennis Abides.
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Serena especially in the 1st set played such a clean game of tennis,just a ‘Joy to Watch’
Novak put on a tennis clinic in the first 2 sets,he was just ‘unplayable’.
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