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Serena Williams moved one match closer to making more tennis history at the Australian Open, but her bigger struggle might be just getting out of bed.Coughing, spluttering and croaking, she gutted out her best win of the tournament by dominating the 2014 finalist Dominika Cibulkova from start to finish, winning their quarter-final 6-2, 6-2 in just an hour-and-a-quarter. Her intensity was no doubt informed by the debilitating effects of the virus that has been with her for most of the fortnight.

Barely able to talk, she said in her courtside interview, “I’m just happy to come through. I don’t have anything to lose.” She did all her talking on the court, serving like the wind, the fastest of her 15 aces flying past Cibulkova at 200kph, and her ground strokes revived memories of Serena at her most dominant at the business end of a major. Cibulkova did not play badly; she was simply not allowed to play.

Five times Williams has reached the semi-finals here, and five times she has won the title. If she wins another one, she will move to within three majors of Steffi Graf’s record Open era tally of 22 and, on this showing, she would start favourite – as long as she can get past fellow American Madison Keys, who beat her sister, Venus, 6-3, 4-6, 6-4 in the early quarter-final.

“I didn’t watch Venus’s match,” Serena said. “I was just getting ready for my match. But it’s great for Keys, not only so young, but African-American — and regardless, there’ll be an American in the final.” — The Guardian