The last spots in the U.S. Open semifinals will be decided Wednesday, with Serena Williams, Andy Murray and Juan Martin del Potro seeking to keep their dominant runs going. Twice, in fact. She dropped a set for the first time in the tournament, too, pushed to the brink by Simona Halep in the quarterfinals.
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“For sure it was affecting my play”, Sevastova said, “but I’m not a person that likes to retire during a match, so I just tried my best”. Also, Simona started playing really well.
Should Williams get through that challenge she will be spared the emotional toll, and significant physical test, of taking on her sister. “She found her rhythm and took the opportunities that I gave her”.
“I knew that I could play a lot better”, Serena said on court after the victory.
“I’m just enjoying these moments out here, getting to break records that I didn’t even know existed or I didn’t even know was possible”. In the other, two-time runner-up Caroline Wozniacki was a 6-0, 6-2 victor against Anastasija Sevastova, who injured her right ankle in the second game and was never able to get going.
After his streak of four consecutive major championships – the first time a man had done that in almost 50 years – was capped by his initial French Open title, Djokovic was upset in the third round at Wimbledon.
Williams must win the tournament outright to hold on to that No. 1 ranking against the German Kerber, who beat her in the Australian Open final.
A year ago in the semifinals, Williams’ attempt to finish off a calendar-year Grand Slam ended with a stunning loss to unseeded Roberta Vinci of Italy.
Karolina Pliskova dominated with her serve to roll past 18-year-old Ana Konjuh and into the U.S. Open semifinals.
As good as Williams’ serve is, it’s Pliskova who leads the tour in aces in 2016.
But Halep, the 2014 French Open finalist, broke Williams for 3-1 in the second set and then held on in close-as-can-be games, including a 22-point tenth game where Halep held for the set on her fifth set point, a Williams backhand over the baseline. Still, Williams breezed through the rest of that set.
This came after Djokovic’s second-round opponent, Jiri Vesely, withdrew from the tournament with a sore left forearm. Instead of trailing 3-0, which was almost the case, Halep wound up ahead 3-1. She never had a break point in a 68-minute, straight-set win with 11 aces plus an awesome 93 percent first-serve percentage.
Escape complete? Not quite.
“I did a quick break in the first game which helped me and I was more calm then and going for my shots”. “Just playing my game; I will try to do that”, said Halep, who has won only one of eight previous matches against the top-seeded Williams.
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That’s where Williams once again asserted herself, as she so often does. Pouille never had won a U.S. Open match or any match that lasted five sets until last week; his 4-hour-plus win against Nadal on Sunday was his third five-setter in a row.
