Serena Williams makes 10th straight grand slam semifinal at Australian Open

Judging by the way she is playing, Serena Williams will be hard to stop as the Australian Open nears its conclusion.

Williams eased past ninth-seed Johanna Konta 6-2 6-3 at Rod Laver Arena on Wednesday to move into a 10th consecutive grand slam semifinal and closer to a record 23rd major.

“It went pretty well for me today,” Williams told reporters.

Williams will regain, too, the No. 1 ranking from German Angelique Kerber if she wins the tournament – and might need to defeat older sister Venus to do so.

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An all-Williams final is still a possibility, since Venus faces fellow American CoCo Vandeweghe on Thursday.

With the Williams sisters and Mirjana Lucic-Baroni in the last four in Melbourne, it means three of the four players in contention in the women’s draw are at least 34. Vandeweghe, 25, is the exception.

The veterans were out to prove age is just a number on day 10 of the 2017 Australian Open.

Serena Williams, aged 35, reached her 10th consecutive grand slam semifinal by beating Britain's Johanna Konta 6-2 6-3.

Williams will play Croatia's Mirjana Lucic-Baroni, who won the Australian Open doubles competition as a 15-year-old in 1998. Now aged 34, Lucic-Baroni defeated Karolína Pliskova to book her semifinal place Wednesday.

Three of the four women's semifinal slots have now been taken by players aged 34 or older.

Venus Williams -- who became the Australian Open's oldest women's semifinalist in the Open Era at the age of 36 after winning through against Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova on Tuesday -- will face Coco Vandeweghe of the U.S..

Vandeweghe is something of an anomaly in the women's draw. The 25-year-old will play in her first grand slam semifinal at the Australian Open.

In the men's draw, Rafael Nadal overcame No. 3 seed Milos Raonic Wednesday to book a date with Grigor Dimitrov in the semis. The 30-year-old is a grand slam veteran with 14 titles to his name.

Roger Federer, who turned 35 last August, has also breezed through the tournament so far. He will face Stan Wawrinka in the other men's semi.

Australian Open: Veterans prove age is just a number in Melbourne

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Lucic-Baroni earlier beat one of the tournament favorites, fifth-seed Karolina Pliskova, 6-4 3-6 6-4, to set up a clash with the world No. 2 and make her second grand slam semifinal a remarkable 18 years after the first.

“No matter what happens, someone 34 or older will be in the final,” Williams said.

Three years after making his first grand slam semifinal at Wimbledon, 15th-seed Grigor Dimitrov returned to the last four when the Bulgarian defeated No. 11 David Goffin 6-3 6-2 6-4.

Dimitrov – who will play 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 tussle Thursday.

Williams will be the substantial favorite against the 79th-ranked Croatian, who fled to the US after she said she was abused by her father.

Faced with a difficult draw, the six-time Australian Open champion hasn’t dropped a set in seeing off the likes of Belinda Bencic, Lucie Safarova – two players who only dropped out of the top 10 due to health issues – crafty Czech Barbora Strycova and Konta.

Britain’s Konta – a semifinalist here 12 months ago – entered the event having won a warmup event in Sydney.

‘Serve wasn’t great’

Williams, however, wasn’t overly pleased with her first serve, her most destructive shot.

She hit 10 aces and won 88% of her first-serve points but only served at 45%.

“My first serve wasn’t really great,” she said. “But I’ve really been working on my second serve.”

Trailing by a break in the second at 3-2, the set turned when Williams recovered the break by chasing down a forehand down the line and a smash before racing forward to send a forehand winner down the line.

Former world No. 1 Venus Williams was a beaten finalist in Melbourne in 2003.

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Despite the loss, Konta said facing Williams was probably one of the best experiences of her life.

“Credit to her, she played an almost perfect first set,” Konta told reporters. “I felt she did incredibly well.

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“She just showed and shows why she is who she is.”