2021 Australian Open: What to Watch For in Serena Williams and Naomi Osaka’s Semifinal - The New York Times

Williams and Osaka will play for the second time at a Grand Slam.

The Australian Open semifinals begin on Wednesday night, headlined by the match between the 10th-seeded Serena Williams of the United States and the third-seeded Naomi Osaka of Japan.

It will be their first Grand Slam meeting since the 2018 United States Open final, an Osaka victory in which Williams received three penalties from the chair umpire.

Open semifinals, Williams has struggled to wrap up Slam victories, winning the title only twice in 11 trips to a semifinal.

Since her victory in the 2017 Australian Open, Williams has remained stuck at 23 Grand Slam titles, one of the loftiest plateaus in sports history.

Though she already holds the career record for Grand Slam titles in the Open era, which began in 1968, Williams has long had her eye on Margaret Court’s record of 24 major titles.

Osaka, 23, who grew up idolizing Williams, has been flawless at closing out Grand Slam victories early in her career.

Osaka has made three previous Grand Slam quarterfinal runs; each time, she won the tournament.

By reaching the semifinals this week, Osaka improved her record in the past three rounds of Grand Slam events to 10-0.

All three previous Osaka matches against Williams came after Williams’s return from maternity leave in 2018.

Despite lingering concerns, and Djokovic saying that the injury would have forced him to pull out from the tournament were it not an all-important Grand Slam event, Djokovic has played well in his subsequent two matches, beating No.