Serena Williams was struggling early in her semifinal against Caroline Wozniacki at the WTA Finals. (Too tired from watching Mariah Carey, perhaps?) She was broken in her first service game, then couldn’t get any traction on her bestie’s serve. So, after dropping the 2-4 game at love, Serena decided to take out her frustration on the nearest inanimate object.

After the match, which she won in three thrilling sets, Williams was asked about the smash.

“I don’t know how many times I hit it but, boy, that racket will never do me wrong again I tell you. It was definitely legendary. I kind of lost my cool a little bit.”

Oh, you think?

The semifinal was phenomenal — easily a candidate for match of the year. Williams had a match point late in the third set but couldn’t convert. Wozniacki had multiple chances to put it away herself, serving for the match once, then sailing a ball long on a break point that would have given her another chance to serve it out. She also raced to a 4-1 lead in the third-set tiebreak, before Williams stormed back to win for the 10th time in 11 matches against her good friend.

(AP)

Williams faces Simona Halep in Sunday’s year-end final. When the two met earlier in the tournament, Halep handed Williams a 6-0, 6-2 loss that was her worst in 16 years.

“My goal is to win three games,” Williams said of the upcoming match. “I’m going to go from there. Hopefully I can hold serve — that would be good. Most of all, I hope to break once.”

Consider yourself warned, racket.

(AP)