Venus Williams is leading a strong American charge at this year’s US Open. Venus, Sloane Stephens and CoCo Vandeweghe are already in the semifinals, and Madison Keys could join them tonight. Sam Querrey wastes a big opportunity in the men’s tournament. Nadal and Federer are on a collision course.
NEW YORK, FLUSHING MEADOWS – The two first ladies’ quarterfinals ended with the identical score of 6-3,3-6,7-6 and the winners climbed back from 1-3 in the third and final set of both matches. On paper, Venus Williams and Sloane Stephens were not the favorites at the beginning of their matches: Venus was trailing 1-4 in the head-to-head against Petra Kvitova and No. 83-ranked Stephens was up against No. 17-ranked Anastasija Sevastova.
This will be the ninth US Open semifinal for 37-year-old Williams, who looked almost on the verge of retirement when she was diagnosed with Sjogren syndrome 6 years ago. Venus, who won these championships in 2000 and 2001, hasn’t reached the semis since 2010. She was asked about what the difference is now compared to when she won the title in her early twenties: “In the early 2000s my health was perfect. What a wonderful thing to have. I was lucky that I could live those moments and today, well… I am still living my dream and it’s incredible,” Williams said in her post-match press conference.
2017 has been a magical year for the American legend. She reached two Grand Slam finals at the Australian Open losing to sister Serena and at Wimbledon where she was defeated by Muguruza. She also reached the fourth round at the French Open, where she lost to Timea Bacsinszky. She is now in the semifinals at her home Slam. The last time that she reached at least the semis at three Grand Slams in the same season was 15 years ago.
Venus should be the favorite in the semifinal clash against Sloane, unless the fatigue eventually catches up with her after the intense 2 hours and 34 minutes battle against Kvitova. At the end of the day, Venus is 13 years older than her semifinal opponent.
Sloane has enjoyed an incredible summer, winning 13 of her last 15 matches and reaching three consecutive semifinals in big tournaments such as the Canadian Open, Cincinnati and now the US Open.
Stephens has recently come back to the tour after being sidelined with a foot injury for almost 11 months. This will be her second Grand Slam semifinal after the Australian Open four and half years ago.
Venus will probably be the crowd’s sentimental favorite during the final weekend. The crowd certainly pushed her through the quarterfinal thriller against Kvitova, who committed a crucial double fault – her eighth – on break-point at 3-3 in third set. Another double-fault gave Venus a match-point in the tie-breaker that decided the match. The spectators that populate Arthur Ashe Stadium are usually 95% white, but I think that the African-American presence will substantially grow in the stands for the Williams vs. Stephens encounter, which will be the first all-American semifinal at the US Open since 2002, when five of the eight quarterfinalists were from the United States. This year the Americans had four out of eight.
Kvitova played an extremely risky and powerful tennis in her match against Venus, striking plenty of forehand winners but also giving herself very little margin for error. Both players competed using more power than finesse.
In the third women’s quartefinal, which was played early on Wednesday, CoCo Vandeweghe of the United States defeated Karolina Pliskova of the Czech Republic in two close sets. 7-6,6-3 was the final score in CoCo’s favor. With this defeat, Pliskova loses the No. 1 ranking to Garbine Muguruza, who enjoyed a great run this summer by winning Wimbledon and Cincinnati.
In the last women’s quarterfinal, Madison Keys will be the favorite against 32-year-old Kania Kanepi of Estonia, who, after emerging unscathed from the qualies and already winning four matches in the main draw, might already be satisfied with her US Open this year.
We could have four American players in the semifinals for the first time since 1981, when Chris Evert, Tracy Austin, Barbara Potter and Martina Navratilova were the final four. It is fair to say that this year’s record would be even more significant for American tennis, as all of the four players were born and learned how to play the sport in the United States. Despite becoming an American citizen between the late 1970s and early 80s, Martina Navratilova has always been more Czech than American tennis-wise: She was taught the sport in Prague and competed for Czechoslovakia early in her professional career.
In the men’s tournament, Sam Querrey wasn’t able to keep the American dream alive, losing 7-6(5), 6-7(9), 6-3, 7-6(7) to Kevin Anderson of South Africa in 3 hours e 24 minutes. Anderson will be the big favorite in the semifinal match against Carreno Busta of Spain.
As for the remaining men’s quarterfinals, I think that Nadal will beat Rublev, who is still relatively immature as a player to impose himself against Rafa. Federer will be the favorite against Del Potro, who will probably be extremely fatigued after the quarterfinal battle against Thiem in the best match of the men’s tournament so far.
(Article translation provided by T&L Global – Translation & Language Solutions –www.t-lglobal.com)
