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There were never going to be any surprises for Coco Gauff when she met Aryna Sabalenka in the Australian Open semifinals.
The match marked the seventh time they had played each other and the first since Gauff defeated the Belarusian in last year's US Open final.
From experience, Gauff knows there are two types of opponent you can expect to face when you are up against Sabalenka.
"Sometimes she's going to miss and sometimes she's going to make winners," Gauff said.
And when there was a spot in the Australian Open final up for grabs, which way did it go?
"Today she was hitting winners," Gauff reflected after her straight-sets loss to Sabalenka on Rod Laver Arena.
For the record, Sabalenka hit 33 winners, including 17 from the forehand wing, as she wrapped up a 7-6 (7/2), 6-4 victory to advance to her second consecutive Australian Open final.
She is yet to drop a set in her title defence, which will continue against Chinese 12th seed Zheng Qinwen in the tournament decider.
Zheng beat Ukrainian qualifier Dayana Yastremska 6-4, 6-4 in the last four and will make her debut in a major final on Saturday night.
It would be misleading to suggest it was simply the power of Sabalenka's forehand that set up her win over Gauff.
As Sabalenka told reporters at Melbourne Park, she took away a valuable lesson from her loss to the 19-year-old in the US Open final, a match in which she claimed the first set before going down in three, 2-6, 6-3, 6-2.
Following her quarterfinal triumph over Barbora Krejčíková, Sabalenka said she wanted "revenge" against Gauff, who held a 4-2 advantage in their head-to-head meetings.
On Thursday night it was mission accomplished for the world number two, whose win was built on correcting a mistake she made in the US Open final.
"I think in New York, I played a little bit of passive tennis. I didn't put so much pressure on her," Sabalenka said.
"I did in the first set, but then I kind of slowed down and started trying to play rallies with her, which was not working well.
"The whole preseason I was working on those approach shots, on coming to the net and finishing the point at the net.
"I'm super happy that I was able to do that on court today and I think that's the difference between these two matches."
Gauff, the world number four, struggled with her serve for much of the match.
She only managed to land 57 per cent of her first serves and was broken four times, while finishing with eight double faults.
But the American launched an admirable fightback in the opening set when she trailed 2-5, going on to win the next four games.
She served for the set at 6-5, however was broken by Sabalenka, who proceeded to dominate the tiebreak that followed.
Dropping four consecutive games could have led Sabalenka to fall apart emotionally, which she has previously conceded was an issue earlier in her career.
But she refused to buckle, instead maintaining her calm to halt Gauff's momentum.
"Honestly, in my head I just let that set go," Sabalenka said.
"I was just like, 'OK, we're going to fight for another one'.
"No matter what the score was, I was just trying to do my best and fight for it.
"Even when the score was 6-5, 30-0 to her serve, I was just like, 'OK, I'm going to do my best, try to stay in this set and try to fight for this set'."
Sabalenka is the first player to reach consecutive Australian Open women's finals since Serena Williams in 2016 and 2017.
Her countrywoman Victoria Azarenka (2012-13) is the most recent back-to-back women's champion.
Zheng had never been past the last eight at a major until this fortnight and is just the second Chinese player to make the final in Melbourne.
Her countrywoman Li Na famously lifted the Daphne Akhurst Memorial Cup in 2014, adding the victory to her 2011 French Open championship.
Li is the only Chinese player to win a singles major.