It was 44 degrees in Melbourne yesterday and, had the organisers not chosen to close the roof for the women's semi-finals, then Serena Williams could probably have cracked an egg and cooked her breakfast on the Plexicushion surface of the Rod Laver Arena.
As it was, she metaphorically fried Elena Dementieva 6-3, 6-4 and, in doing so, showed why she will start tomorrow's Australian Open final against Dinara Safina as a favourite as hot as the weather.
Williams has won three titles in Melbourne and seems to view the Australian Open in much the same way that her sister Venus looks at Wimbledon: namely that it belongs to her and anyone who dares to take the Daphne Akhurst trophy from her grasp is likely to find themselves on the wrong end of a pasting.
It is an admirable position for Williams to adopt, but then she is not exactly known for her lack of self-belief. She was delighted at the prospect of winning what would be a 10th grand slam title and even went as far as making up a tradition on the spot by suggesting that she would get some sort of telegram - presumably from the Queen - confirming a decade of majors.
"It would be cool; maybe I'll get the special 10-plus' bonus mail," said Williams, before backtracking just a little when she realised she was taxi-ing towards a flight of fancy. "Like I'm sure that people have 10 plus grand slams get special letters. I'll be part of a really elite club."
As much as Williams must be regarded as the front runner, Safina is hardly what the Australians call a roughie', the local vernacular for a player who comes out of the Plexicushion blue. She reached the final of Roland Garros last year and went on to be an Olympic silver medallist in Beijing and then made the semi-finals of the US Open.
After a rather patchy performance against Alize Cornet - she had to save match points - and Jelena Dokic, the world No.3 went into a higher gear to defeat her compatriot Vera Zvonareva 6'3, 7'6 in their semi-final.
"Safina's playing well; she seems to never die," said Williams. "So she's doing a great job. She's going to be a tough opponent. She obviously wants to win. She's playing amazing, and she wants to win a grand slam and go for the glory. I'm excited that I'm playing really consistent, you know, consistently at least making it to the finals of grand slams. So that's exciting, too."
Williams is right to be proud of her consistency in reaching back-to-back grand slam finals after she won last year's US Open, for it has not always been a feature of her undulating career.
She now has an opportunity to dominate the women's game the way that she did in 2002 and 2003, when she completed the so-called Serena Slam of the four grand slams titles in a row. "It's definitely more important for me to stay there than just to get there," she said of regaining the No.1 ranking. "Right now that would be just a bonus. But my goal isn't to be No. 1; my goal is to obviously now win one more match here at the Australian Open."
Roger Federer can allow himself to set his heart on the same goal after winning through to his 18th grand slam final with a 6-2, 7-5, 7-5 victory over Andy Roddick, his 16th win over the American in 18 meetings. Given the one-sided nature of the series - it would be utterly misleading to call it a rivalry - Roddick did rather well to gather up the scraps of self-esteem he had left after seeing the first set ripped from him by Federer with beautiful brutality.
For the first half-hour, Federer was at his brilliant best and Roddick saw so many forehands whipped past him that he might have considered packing up his racket bag and heading to the air-conditioned locker room. More than once an expletive flew from his lips and into the balmy evening air.He regrouped admirably in the second but Federer appeared to have already decided that the match was his to do with as he pleased. He cruised until a burst of pace and power was necessary at the end of the second and third sets and broke the Roddick serve at the same time as his spirit.
Federer will play either Rafael Nadal or Fernando Verdasco and goes into the final safe in the knowledge that a left-handed Spaniard will stand between him and a 14th grand slam title to equal Pete Sampras's all-time record.
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