Third set: Karolina Muchova 4-6 6-3 1-1 Jennifer Brady* Brady goes down 0-15 but does not cede a point thereafter and levels with an ace.

Third set: Karolina Muchova* 4-6 6-3 1-0 Jennifer Brady In line with this, a hold to love kicks off the deciding set.

Second set: Karolina Muchova 4-6 6-3 Jennifer Brady* Brady thinks she is controlling a rally by she’s not ready for the backspin coming her way and 40-15 has turned into deuce.

A good forehand give Muchova the advantage before Brady echoes her opponent by double faulting her way to a set loss.

Second set: Karolina Muchova* 4-6 5-3 Jennifer Brady How about those quick hands.

Second set: Karolina Muchova 4-6 4-3 Jennifer Brady* Muchova has picked up a new racket during the change of ends but it’s Brady who means business now with a searing serve that yields three game points.

Second set: Karolina Muchova* 4-6 4-2 Jennifer Brady Muchova is making her first serve count big time.

Up 30-0, she loses her very first point on serve this set courtesy of a strong Brady return.

Second set: Karolina Muchova 4-6 3-2 Jennifer Brady* Brady follows suit, finishing with a second serve of 181km/h if you don’t mind.

Second set: Karolina Muchova* 4-6 3-1 Jennifer Brady Muchova holds to love.

Second set: Karolina Muchova 4-6 2-1 Jennifer Brady* At the risk of jumping the gun or spoiling plot, there’s a sense Osaka would be too strong for either player on the court right now.

Muchova beat Barty and Brady has been strong throughout the tournament.

Second set: Karolina Muchova* 4-6 2-0 Jennifer Brady Muchova skips to a hold to love with an energy indicating she very much intends to push this to a deciding stanza.

Second set: Karolina Muchova 4-6 1-0 Jennifer Brady* As the second set gets under way it has emerged Williams left her press conference in tears when asked what went wrong in her semi-final with Osaka and whether this would be her last Australian Open!

First set: Karolina Muchova* 4-6 Jennifer Brady Bit of a war of attrition this game.

First set: Karolina Muchova 4-5 Jennifer Brady* This could be a bit of a moment in this match.

First set: Karolina Muchova* 4-4 Jennifer Brady Muchova, though, is composed.

First set: Karolina Muchova 3-4 Jennifer Brady* Muchova has an opening at 15-30 but Brady’s serve is too strong and the return is short, landing inside the service box just waiting for a winner.

She does that again a couple of points later, which will get her punished against Brady and even more punished against someone like Osaka, should she make the final.

First set: Karolina Muchova* 3-3 Jennifer Brady Brady is piling on the unforced errors.

First set: Karolina Muchova 2-3 Jennifer Brady* The pair are trading groundstrokes and Brady clearly prefers her forehand, running around the ball a lot of the time it comes down the left-hand side of the court?

First set: Karolina Muchova* 2-2 Jennifer Brady She does with ease via some clever shot selection and helped on her way with a couple of mistakes from Brady.

First set: Karolina Muchova 1-2 Jennifer Brady* There are some vicious shots flying around here.

If Muchova can hold the set will be back on serve.

First set: Karolina Muchova* 0-2 Jennifer Brady Well well.

First set: Karolina Muchova 0-1 Jennifer Brady* Muchova and Brady have just started their clash with the latter holding serve to love!

Naomi Osaka takes the first set against Serena Williams.

Osaka, calm and composed, is talking about Williams, a childhood idol, and admits she was “nervous and scared in the beginning”.

Had she worked out Serena’s serve.

Osaka knows it too, by the look of the way she is bouncing at the baseline, readying to serve and making no mistakes this time?

There is clearly a lot of respect behind the pair as they meet at the net but the road ends here for Williams?

Second set: Naomi Osaka 6-3 5-4 Serena Williams* Hasn’t this taken a turn.

Williams falls prey to a double fault this time and no sooner has she delivered her next serve Osaka is dictating play, running the American about and sealing this break to love with an acutely angled backhand.

Second set: Naomi Osaka* 6-3 4-4 Serena Williams Oh my, two double faults.

It’s 0-40 and Williams has three break points

The first goes begging and so does the second when Osaka serve-volleys and forces a back-foot lob from Williams that is closer to the moon than the court

Second set: Naomi Osaka 6-3 4-3 Serena Williams* Williams obliges with a service game to haunt the dreams of any in her way (12% of men, in particular), and drops one point en route to a hold

Second set: Naomi Osaka* 6-3 4-2 Serena Williams Speaking of the other semi-finalists, Brady and Muchova are already warming up as if this could be over quite soon

Williams needs to find something or her quest for a 24th grand slam singles title will slip away

Second set: Naomi Osaka 6-3 3-2 Serena Williams* The commentators are wondering whether Serena is second-guessing herself because she is treating this like a final rather than a semi-final

It is true that the other semi-finalists, Jennifer Brady and Karolína Muchová, are less experienced

Second set: Naomi Osaka* 6-3 3-1 Serena Williams A half-volley has caught Osaka on the hop and she’s not in the right position, too close to lift it over the net

Williams is becoming frustrated with her inability to take control, shaking her head and lifting her eyes skyward in smiling vexation

Second set: Naomi Osaka 6-3 2-1 Serena Williams* Were we talking about serving just now

Second set: Naomi Osaka* 6-3 2-0 Serena Williams A “sorry” rings out as Osaka’s ball toss goes awry and she makes the second, but Williams, who has been allowing her counterpart quite a bit of leeway with shots through the middle of the court, whips a return down the line

Second set: Naomi Osaka 6-3 1-0 Serena Williams* Williams needs to rein in the unforced errors

To a certain extent, Osaka has been guilty of this too, but she is making her backhand count, one of which secures a third break of Serena’s serve

First set: Naomi Osaka* 6-3 Serena Williams Osaka is muttering to herself now

The second serve is straight in the net

This is the inconsistency letting down both players, evidenced in the very next point when Osaka lands a first serve that rebounds off Williams’s frame and goes one 10th of nowhere

First set: Naomi Osaka 5-3 Serena Williams* Say what you like, Serena has a serve to singe the hairs off your nose

First set: Naomi Osaka* 5-2 Serena Williams This is turning into a bit of a clinic

Williams makes her 15th unforced error and Osaka has recovered to claim five consecutive games

First set: Naomi Osaka 4-2 Serena Williams* Shot

She had Williams, 16 years her senior, harrying and hassling, then stretching in vein for a deep crosscourt shot the American lays on a platter for the winner

One forehand winner later and she has a second break

First set: Naomi Osaka* 3-2 Serena Williams The first set is back on serve and Osaka is keen to keep it that way even if her first serve is not

Williams is wise to the wide second serve and she is turning rallies back onto the reigning US Open champion

Osaka saves two break points and while she does well to hold from deuce, part of can be attributed to mistakes from Williams when she had the upper hand

First set: Naomi Osaka 2-2 Serena Williams* This is the sting we’ve been been waiting for from Osaka

At deuce, Williams appears set for an advantage when her shot fortuitously catches the net and pops over but Osaka is there and the ball has whirred past her opponent before she knows which move to make next

Osaka converts her break point and this contest is starting to offer some of the intrigue it promised

First set: Naomi Osaka* 1-2 Serena Williams Osaka has the advantage and finally gets herself on the scoreboard

First set: Naomi Osaka 0-2 Serena Williams* Osaka has clearly not yet found a rhythm

Perhaps more accurately, she hasn’t been given a chance for Williams is the aggressor in pursuit of a 30th grand slam final and 24th singles title, racing to 40-0 via a rally that ends with a smash

An unforced error gifts Osaka a lifeline but this is the only error

First set: Naomi Osaka* 0-1 Serena Williams What an opening game from Williams

Osaka is serving with power but the American is matching and raising her

In that decider at Flushing Meadows, where Williams, having received three pivotal code violations, called the chair umpire a “thief” and imploded in the second set while Osaka held her nerve to win

Williams then had to stop fans booing throughout Osaka’s trophy ceremony

Of course, that was basically the first thing Williams was asked after beating Simona Halep in the quarterfinals Tuesday, and only had praise for Osaka

The pair have faced each other in the interim, with Williams beating Osaka emphatically in Toronto in 2019

Most of those for this daylight portion are about to enter Rod Laver Arena for the women’s semi-final between Naomi Osaka and Serena Williams

Serena Williams and Naomi Osaka are first up on Rod Laver Arena today, where they will scrap it out for a place in Saturday’s final

Williams, of course, is chasing a record-equalling 24th grand slam title and has given every indication so far in Melbourne that this could well be the tournament where she finally draws level with Margaret Court

But there’s a sizeable obstacle in her way in the form of Osaka, who has equally been in top form and looks capable of adding a fourth grand slam title to her burgeoning collection

Hot on their heels are Jennifer Brady and Karolína Muchová, in what is, it’s fair to say, a far less widely anticipated encounter, although one that is none the less intriguing