Serena Williams sets up dream final against sister Venus

Serena took just 50 minutes to book her place in Saturday's showpiece where she will meet Venus, who overcame CoCo Vandeweghe in Thursday's first semi-final.

The pair met in the 2003 final, which Serena won in three sets.

Lucic-Baroni's inspiring journey to the semi-finals took in wins over Agnieszka Radwanska and Karolina Pliskova among others, but she never had a chance against Serena and found herself blasted off court.

Serena beat sister Venus in their only previous Australian Open final encounter in 2003, and while Thursday was all about family pride, there will be little room for sentiment come Saturday.

"For us both to be in the final is the biggest dream come true for us," said Serena, a year her sister's junior.

"She's my toughest opponent, no one has ever beaten me as much as Venus has. I just feel like no matter what's happened we've both won... A Williams is going to win this tournament."

Although Serena has returned from four months out with a shoulder injury and Venus has ended a eight-year grand slam final drought, Lucic-Baroni's fairytale return to the top table of tennis after years in the wilderness trumped them both.

A doubles champion at Melbourne Park as a 15-year-old, Lucic-Baroni's career had gone into a tailspin on the back of trauma in her personal life before she battled back to reach Thursday's semi-final as world number 79.

Her left leg a swathe of strapping, she came out firing winners as if her life depended on it but she was simply unable to stay with the world number two at her brutal best in the 50 minute contest.

The six-times champion was all but untouchable when her first serve hit the mark and sealed the win when Lucic-Baroni smashed a forehand into the net, the American reaching her 29th grand slam final where she will bid for a 23rd major title.

Serena gave her opponent a huge hug at the net before watching on smiling as Lucic-Baroni took a selfie as a memento of her day in the sun.

"Honestly she's inspiration, she deserves all the credit today," said Serena. "Everything she's gone through, she inspires me."

Venus needed almost three times as long to overcome world number 35 Vandeweghe, who broke the 13th seed on her first service game and won the opening set on a tiebreaker.