Serena Williams vs. Mirjana Lucic-Baroni: 2017 Australian Open Score, Reaction

The only person standing in the way of Serena Williams' 23rd Grand Slam singles title is her sister.

No. 2 Williams handled Mirjana Lucic-Baroni in straight sets in Thursday's Australian Open semifinal, 6-2, 6-1. The six-time Australian Open singles champion, who fell to Angelique Kerber in the final last year, will face No. 13 Venus Williams after she took down CoCo Vandeweghe, 6-7 (3), 6-2, 6-3.

It will be the first all-Williams final since 2009.

Serena Williams, 35, made quick work of Lucic-Baroni, 34, who she hadn't faced since 1998:

Williams set the tone with her serve. Though she had just three aces, she won 24-of-26 of her first-service points and committed only 10 unforced errors. Lucic-Baroni never got to a break point and ended any hope of an upset with 23 unforced errors and six double-faults.

Williams broke Lucic-Baroni on the latter's second and third service games and was quickly ahead 5-1 behind her dominant serve. While the Croatian held serve to make it 5-2, the American won all four points in the next game to clinch the first set 6-2.

Williams won all 14 of her first-serve points in that opening set, and tennis writer Abigail Johnson juxtaposed the set with the first semifinal Thursday:

Williams maintained her momentum by breaking Lucic-Baroni in the second set's third game to move ahead 2-1. She continued her effective play and broke the challenger again to seize a commanding 4-1 lead before finishing things off.

Williams praised her opponent after the match: "Mirjana is an inspiration and deserves all the credit today. To get so far after all she has been through inspires me, and I wanted to give her all the congratulations."

She continued: "It is great to see her out here. I was rooting for her through the whole tournament. The serve was a little better today. I want it to be a little better. I knew it needed to be good because Mirjana is a great returner."

The sisters squared off in the 2003 Australian Open final, which Serena won. Venus, 36, has never won a singles title at the Australian Open and faces a 16-11 deficit in their head-to-head meetings.