Serena Williams smokes Dominika Cibulkova to advance to Aussie Open semis

With her sister Venus getting bounced from the Australian Open quarters just minutes before she took the court for her own quarterfinal match, Serena Williams would need to find inspiration elsewhere. 

She had to fight back from a set down to beat Elina Svitolina in Round 3, drawing courage from seeing Venus do the same, and make another comeback in the fourth round against Garbine Muguruza.

After grinding through matches and struggling to find her form through the first three weeks of 2015, Williams was up against Dominika Cibulkova, the 2014 runner-up, who seemed able to take her game to another level on the blue hardcourts in Melbourne. 

But Williams was locked in from the very beginning of the match, cleaning up the sloppy footwork and erratic hitting that had troubled her in her previous three matches. She looked better than she has all year, and routed Cibulkova, 6-2, 6-2, to book her spot in the Aussie Open semis for the first time since 2010, when she last won the tournament. 

Cibulkova never looked quite comfortable, unsure how to handle Williams' power. (She's never known what to do with Williams, and is now 0-5 against her lifetime, winning just one set in those five meetings.)

Cibulkova is a heavy hitter herself, but she was getting behind early in practically every point, pinned back against the baseline by Williams' punishing, relentlessly deep groundstrokes, and lofting back short, hanging returns. 

If there was one thing Williams struggled with, it was putting her first serves in, landing only 52 percent of them. But when she did put them in, she made them count in a huge way. Fifteen of her 24 successful first serves were aces, and she lost only four of those 24 points. 

Cibulkova earned just two break points all match, failing to convert either. 

Before the tournament began, I wrote about Williams' habit of gathering steam, rather than running out of it, as these Grand Slams move on, and how the biggest obstacle to her winning in Melbourne would likely be the pitfalls of Week 1. 

Well, here we are in Week 2 and Williams is finally looking like her dominant self again. 

Look out.