Serena Williams beats Maria Sharapova for sixth Australian Open crown and 19th grand slam title

Serena Williams won her 19th grand slam title, continued her unbeaten run in six Australian Open finals and extended her decade-long domination of Maria Sharapova with a 6-3, 7-6 (7-5) victory despite a hacking cough last night.

After celebrating prematurely on her third match point, letting her racquet go before hearing a let call to what she thought was an ace, Williams had to quickly re-gather her composure.

"I thought, 'Wow this is it, I did it,' only to hear let. I was like, 'OK Serena!'" she said. "I was very disappointed, because Maria was playing so well. I thought she's going to try to hit a winner now. She goes for broke on match point."

Top-ranked Williams took a deep breath and fired another ace - her 15th of the set and 18th of the match - and this time the celebration was real.

She jumped around like a little child, bouncing up and down, before shaking hands with Sharapova at the net. "I'm so honoured to be here tonight and to hold this 19th trophy at my favourite stadium," Williams said.

The 33-year-old became the oldest winner of the Australian women's title in the Open era and moved into outright second place on the list of major winners in the Open era, behind only Steffi Graf's 22.

Still affected by a recent cold, Williams controlled the first set around a rain delay in the sixth game, when play was stopped for 13 minutes for the roof to be closed. Williams came back on court momentarily near the end of the break, but returned to the locker room.

"I had a really bad cough, I ended up throwing up, actually. I think that helped me when I got it out," Williams said. "I've just got a really bad cold, a really bad cough. Usually when that happens you stay in bed, you don't play matches every day."

She came back from the break and fired an ace to start a run of six straight points. She was broken while serving for the set, but broke Sharapova for a third time to clinch it.

Williams had one of her most consistent matches in the tournament. As well as the aces, she won 37 of the 44 points when she managed to get her first serve into play. She was only broken once and hit 38 winners.

Williams now has won 16 in a row and is 17-2 in career matches against Sharapova, who has not won a head-to-head meeting since 2004.

"I haven't beaten her in a long time, but I love every time I step on the court with her," said Sharapova, who had to save two match points in the second round. "I've had some of the best memories of my career on this court and also some of my toughest losses, but that's the life of a tennis player."