After losing the last two US Open semifinals played in her career, Serena Williams broke the spell with a comprehensive 6-3, 6-0, victory against Anastasjia Sevastova from Latvia on Thursday night reaching her 31st Major final.
The hope that Sevastova’s crafty tennis could take away some certainties from Serena’s train-like progression towards her 24th Major title lasted slightly more than two games. An overly cautious Williams took the court with excessive attention, rolling in first serves and letting a wise abundant net clearance become unhealthy flat shots sailing way past the baseline. But even when she took an early 2-0 lead in the first set, Sevastova never appeared to be in control of the game: her backhand dropshots down the line often looked far too rushed and her lobs in response to Williams’ attacks were always defensive, never offensive, never able to hurt her opponent.
Once she settled into the match, Serena comfortably stretched her pace to reverse the score by winning five games in a row and subsequently closed the first set in 39 minutes.
While the rain outside the roofed Arthur Ashe Stadium was going her best to provide some relief from the heatwave that had toasted the New York Area for several days and had forced the junior matches to be postponed earlier in the day, the Serena show on court continued also during the second set. Sevastova appeared to have no weapons to threaten Williams’ dominance, too vanilla her groundstrokes, too unharmful her serve, too unable to produce her usual variation from the position of the court she was pushed to by Serena’s powerful rallies. “I don’t think I played badly – said Sevastova in press conference, minutes after walking off Arthur Ashe Stadium – but I should not get broken twice in the first set, I was ahead in both games, I had game point in both games, maybe she was a bit lucky there. But then she got ahead, and when she gets ahead it’s really difficult to play her”.
Williams’ polished performance extended also to her on-court interview with ESPN’s Tom Rinaldi: “I usually come to the net only to shake hands, but today I was playing such a good player that I wanted to try something different, and it worked out great for me”.
Advancing to her ninth US Open final, Serena awaits Naomi Osaka, the winner of the second semifinal whom she lost to last March in Miami in their only previous meeting. Osaka routed Williams 6-3, 6-2 in the first round of the Miami Open, when Serena was only on her second tournament back from “maternity leave”.
