TENNIS US OPEN – The mixed doubles event was the place to be when Sania Mirza and Bruno Soares beat Abigail Spears and Santiago Gonzalez 6-1 2-6 11-9. That was where the best tennis was played as the highlight of the day for the women’s matches was the circumstances surrounding a retirement from one of the matches. From New York, Cordell Hackshaw
US Open: All the interviews, results, draws and OoP
The last Friday at the US Open is mainly dedicated to the Mixed Doubles’ Final and the women’s singles semifinals. The mixed doubles event was the place to be when Sania Mirza and Bruno Soares beat Abigail Spears and Santiago Gonzalez 6-1 2-6 11-9. That was where the best tennis was played as the highlight of the day for the women’s matches was the circumstances surrounding a retirement from one of the matches. People were already making their exit from the half-filled stadium before the 2nd semifinal was finished. Caroline Wozniacki (10) moved into her 2nd major final when Shuai Peng retired 7-6 4-3 Ret. Wozniacki will play her newfound best friend on tour Serena Williams (1). Williams thoroughly dismissed Ekaterina Makarova (17) 6-1 6-3 for her 4th consecutive finals here.
Wozniacki and Peng were first up. Neither of the player possess a huge power game so there was going to be a lot of long intense rallies. Surprisingly, it was Peng who got the first break in the 7th game for a 4-3 lead. However, Peng could not consolidate as Wozniacki broke to level the match. Peng again took the advantage as she broke for 6-5 and a chance to serve for the 1st set. Again, she was unable to consolidate the break as Wozniacki forced the set to a tiebreaker. In the breaker, Peng capitulated as she won only a single point in the breaker. Wozniacki took it 7-61 and a step closer to her 2nd major final.
In the 2nd set, Peng broke Wozniacki for a third time in the match and again no sooner did she do so than Wozniacki came back to level the match. However, it was near this point that the match took a bizarre turn. Peng had earned another break point to get back on serve down 3-4. As Wozniacki was about to serve, Peng got out of her return stance clutching and tugging her right leg. She looked to be in severe distress. The trainer came on court and eventually was taken off for medical evaluation. Some ten minutes later, she returned to the court and played a couple of points but then fell to the court in agony. Wozniacki stated, “[I]t was really hard to watch for me whenever I saw her collapse on the court. You know, tennis is great, but the health is more important. You know, to see her struggling out there.”
It was a rather terrible scene. The crowd looked on rather uncomfortably trying to cheer Peng on. Eventually it was decided that the match should end due to retirement from Peng. Wozniacki is through to her 2nd US Open final 7-6 4-3 Ret. “[T]he heat is really hot. I just try to fight, and my body is getting more and more hot and it start cramping. It’s really painful right there,” Peng said after the match. She noted that she was told not to go back onto the court by the doctors but decided to go nonetheless in an effort to continue the fight.
Peng was treated for heat illness of which cramping is a symptom. However, the USTA is under fire for allowing Peng to come back on court after the medical timeout. Tournament official later stated of the incident, “[S]he’s a highly trained professional athlete. She knows her body and her condition better than anybody. If she wants to go compete, that’s why she’s here. If there were a situation where she could have harmed herself, I’m very confident that our medical staff would have said, Sorry, you cannot go back out there again.”
Williams moved into her 4th straight US Open finals quite comfortably against Makarova. Both women had easy opening service games but Williams broke in the 4th game of the match and never looked back. She won 9 consecutive games for a 6-1 4-0 lead before Makarova was able to get back on the scoreboard. She saved a couple of break points to hold finally. “Serena, she’s a great, unbelievable player. It’s always tough to play against her. Today she was so aggressive … Like she’s just coming, you know, so early, so sometimes I was too late because she was too fast,” Makarova said after the match.
Williams served for the match 5-2 but was inexplicably broken to cut her lead down to 3-5. Perhaps this was based on the fact that someone shouted out to Williams, “Slow down. I don’t want to go home yet.” Williams broke Makarova yet again to close out the match 6-1 6-3 in an hour. Williams said in her press conference, “I’m just really excited to be in the final. In the beginning of the week I definitely wasn’t sure I would make it this long. Definitely wasn’t sure I’d be here. So I’m just elated, to be honest, to have made it this far.” Williams is looking for her 18th major singles title and a 3rd consecutive US Open title. Incidentally, Williams has never won the same major title three years in a row.
