Making history has not always come easily to Williams, who a year ago crumbled when two wins away from the calendar grand slam, which would have been a first since Graf's in 1988.

Australian-born Johanna Konta, who now has British citizenship, plays a women's semifinal against Angelique Kerber on Rod Laver Arena after defending champion Serena Williams takes on Agnieszka Radwanska.

Serena Williams beat Aga Radwanska to reach her seventh Australian Open final as she goes in search of her 22nd Grand Slam singles title.

"I was just standing there kind of watching her play", the fourth-seeded Agnieszka Radwanska said after her 6-0, 6-4 drubbing by Williams on Thursday. Unbelievable serve. Everything, she was going for it. Yeah, I couldn't do much.

Moreover, Radwanska enters this semi-final clash riding a 12-match winning streak, that extends back to her winning the WTA Finals Singapore at the end of last season, as well as the Shenzhen Open tournament at the beginning of the new year.

Williams, who had never lost a semi-final at Melbourne Park broke Radwanska's service to open the match and was rarely troubled in the 21-minute first set.

Belief is what she has lots of - a belief that she can win big matches.

"She started playing better". She needed time, she said, to recover mentally and physically.

The first set was 20-minute destruction that statistics only partially explain.

For Radwanska to cause the upset, the Polish star will have to rely on Williams dropping her form in a bid to cause a major upset.

Williams has won the title each the six previous times she's won in the quarterfinals here.

Predictions: Williams wins in three in her first scratchy match since the first round while Kerber gets by in two.

Although her level dipped in the second set, Williams got the decisive break in the ninth game to go up 5-4 and then closed out the match in a brisk 64 minutes. "When I play better, when I'm forced to play better, I don't know, I do well".

Williams had entered her match against Radwanska as a prohibitive favourite, and so it proved.

Williams started slowly and was certainly not at her barnstorming best but it is ominous for the rest of the draw that she won with so much to spare. "Yeah, I'm looking forward to playing Serena in the final", Kerber said. "I really want to enjoy being a professional tennis player and playing on Grand Slam courts, moments like this".

"It's motivating because she's at a different level", Sharapova said.

Every time the American has made the final at Melbourne Park she has gone on to win the Daphne Akhurst Memorial Cup. "I was trying to be focus on that, especially that it was tough on the one hand side", Radwanska admitted.

"But I wanted to prove that I can play also ahead this year".

"I'm really excited to be in another final". "I definitely block it out", Williams said after her 6-0, 6-4 victory over Radwanska. The one thing Kerber does have going for her is the aggressiveness at the net.

Williams put on another show in the quarterfinal round of the Australian Open, winning her 18th straight against career rival Maria Sharapova. She held off two break points at 4-all, then served out the set.