Australian Open 2017 Women's Final: Winner, Score and Twitter Reaction

Serena Williams scored a 6-4, 6-4 victory over sister Venus Williams on Saturday to capture the 2017 Australian Open championship at Melbourne Park in Australia. The triumph gives her 23 major titles, the most in the Open Era and one behind Margaret Court for the all-time record.

Williams, who didn't lose a single set throughout the tournament, also owns an Aussie Open record with seven titles, three more than anybody else in the Open Era. In addition, the 35-year-old dominant force has now won at least one major championship in six straight years.

The match itself wasn't as routine as the scoreline makes it seem. Venus secured two breaks in the opening set to remain close and dropped serve just once in the second set against the game's most powerful returner. But the small margins were enough to tip the match in her younger sister's favor.

Serena finished the match with 27 winners and 10 aces while winning six of seven points when coming to net. Venus tallied 21 winners and seven aces, but she won just 29 percent of the points on her second serve and didn't generate any break chances in the final set.

Bleacher Report UK noted the victory returned Serena to the No. 1 ranking:

Jon Wertheim of Sports Illustrated passed along an interesting tidbit about her amazing longevity:

Looking back at her latest destruction of the field at the season's first major, it's hard to believe there was actually some doubt coming into the tournament. But there was.

Williams missed the latter stages of the 2016 campaign because of a shoulder injury. Her return to the WTA Tour didn't yield much confidence about her form, as she lost to 72nd-ranked Madison Brengle in her second match at the Auckland warm-up event.

The outlook didn't get any more promising when she received a difficult draw in the Land Down Under that included matchups with Belinda Bencic and Lucie Safarova in the first two rounds.

None of that mattered in the end. As soon as the bright lights of a Grand Slam event turned on, Williams once again looked like the greatest player in history.

Fellow American tennis star John Isner congratulated her on the victory:

Nike passed along a powerful ad about the road she's traveled:

Meanwhile, Venus' journey in the year's first major is in some ways even more impressive, even though she came up one win short of her ultimate goal.

The elder Williams sister hadn't reached a Grand Slam final since the 2009 Wimbledon Championships—another loss to Serena. In the nearly eight years in between, she was diagnosed with Sjogren's syndrome, an autoimmune disease, and struggled to maintain top form.

Things have started trending back in the right direction lately, however. She reached the Wimbledon semifinals last year and now has another major final on her already terrific resume. It certainly bolsters the outlook for the rest of her 2017 season.

Billie Jean King, a 12-time major singles champion, commented on the inspirational tale Venus has been writing with her resurgence:

Darren Rovell of ESPN relayed what all of the Williams sisters' success has translated to from a financial perspective:

Looking ahead, the one accomplishment that's eluded Serena Williams is perhaps the toughest of all: the calendar Grand Slam. So anytime she wins the Australian Open, that quest returns to the radar, and this year won't be any different.

She nearly completed the four-major sweep in 2015, winning each of the first three titles before falling in the U.S. Open semifinals. If she can get through the French Open, which she's won "just" three times, the potential for a Grand Slam will come into focus for the second time in three years.

Post-Match Reaction

The Australian Open passed along Serena's reaction to her 39th overall (when taking doubles into account) Grand Slam title:

The tournament also provided comments from Venus after the match:

Most notably, Serena pointed to her sister as one of the key reasons she's been able to achieve so much during her Hall of Fame career, per John Pye of the Associated Press.

"This was a tough one," she said. "I really would like to take this moment to congratulate Venus, she's an amazing person—she's my inspiration. There's no way I would be at 23 without her—there's no way I would be at one without her. Thank you Venus for inspiring me to be the best player I can be and inspiring me to work hard."

All match statistics courtesy of the tournament's official website.