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Australian Open: After escaping domestic violence, Lucic-Baroni sobs through interview

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Mirjana Lucic-Baroni broke down mid-sentence and sobbed. She couldn't go on.

"One day I will say a long big story about things that happened to me, but, um, I never could dream about being here again. This is just..." Lucic-Baroni stumbled, crying. Unable to control her emotions, she stepped away from Rennae Stubbs's microphone.

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Mirjana Lucic-Baroni's fairytale comeback

34-year-old Mirjana Lucic-Baroni breaks down on Rod Laver Arena after winning through to a grand slam semi after more than a decade of hardship.

The crowd filled in for her, applause rising to a mighty roar. The unheralded Croat, whose life has been so tough, has become a crowd favourite.

Lucic-Baroni, ranked 79 in the world, had just defeated Czech fifth seed Karolina Pliskova​ in three sets, 6-4, 3-6, 6-4. She will now take on Serena Williams for a spot in the final.

Her tears showed just how much this meant to her.

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"I know this means a lot to every player that reaches the semis, but to me this is just overwhelming. I will never ever ever forget this day and this last couple of weeks," she said. "This has truly made everything bad that has happened OK. Just the fact that I was this strong and it was worth fighting this hard is incredible."

Now 34, Lucic-Baroni was once heralded as the next big thing in tennis.

In 1998, on these courts, she won the Australian Open women's doubles title, aged a tender 15. A year later she reached the Wimbledon semi-final.

And then her life fell apart.

Lucic-Baroni still won't talk much about what happened, but a few things are known.

Aged 16, she sought a restraining order against her father and coach for physically and mentally terrorising her. He denied the allegations.

She fled her father, and Croatia, after an argument in which she alleges her father struck her and her mother. "There have been more beatings than anyone can imagine," she said at the time.

Then there were the financial problems. Between 2004 and 2007 she competed in only six tournaments because she couldn't afford to travel to matches to further her career.

Partly, that was a result of her management company IMG suing her and her family in 2003 as her game fell apart. She countersued, and 14 years later the messy lawsuit still has not been resolved.

None of that matters now, though.

When Stubbs asked her how she was feeling, she answered "I just felt extreme calm, I felt peace."