When the 2017 Australian Open lobbed off last week, it was very hard to see both Venus and Serena Williams progressing to the semi-final stage.

This was based on account of the injuries suffered by Serena and her apparent loss of form at the tournament preceding the Australian Open – she was beaten in the second round of the Melbourne Open.

For Venus, whose form has truly improved again in the last 18 months, it was not expected that she would be able to defeat all the players on her side of the draw even though she seemingly had the easier draw. But as fate would have it, most of the seeded players were dumped out by lower ranked players.

But both sisters are now in the semis, with the apparent meeting in the final of the first Grand Slam in 2017, a possibility. And they have come thus far without dropping any set. Venus will battle the hard-hitting Coco Vandeweghe while Serena is up against a resurgent Mirjana Lucic-Baroni.

The semi-finals will be played on Thursday.

After their first meeting at U.S. Open Grand Slam final in 2001, and their last final together at the 2009 Wimbledon tournament – both are playing some great tennis with the mantra – ‘I have nothing to lose’ which presumes that we may be seeing the two in the Saturday final.

“I feel like we’ve been just going. I’ve been doing this for many years. The past few years I’ve been super consistent,” Serena said in Australia.

“I’m just really happy for Venus, obviously. She’s doing amazing … At the end of the day, it really helps me to realise that you have to always go for your dreams. So I feel like it’s just great.”

Serena continued: “I have absolutely nothing to lose in this tournament. Everything here is a bonus for me. Obviously I’m here to win. Hopefully I can play better, I can only go better.”

‎Venus said after her fourth round victory that “I feel I was born to play this game – with these long legs and hands.”