Serena Williams ended her press conference late Wednesday night at the U.S. Open with the ultimate mic drop.
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Heading into Wednesday’s quarterfinal against No. 5 Simona Halep, Williams has been rather dominant. Konjuh had knocked out fourth seed Agnieszka Radwanska. Pliskova has won 10 straight matches on hard court.
Leading at 5-3, Williams stepped to the line as she aimed to serve out the match.
Williams failed to convert any of her 12 break-point opportunities in the second set, but it was a different story in the final set, after she broke Halep for a 3-1 lead.
But it wasn’t just that.
“I’m sure she will tell me something, but I’ll be there”, Williams said. “That’s what makes me really calm”. “I knew if I wanted to win it, I’d have to step it up in the third set”. “I’m not overplaying, I’m not underplaying”.
“I’m glad I had the break points as opposed to not having them”, Williams said. She played really well. Pouille never had won a US 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. She has a chance to break a tie with Steffi Graf and get her 23rd career major win, a record for the Open era. 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.
“She is the best player”, Halep said, as if the statement hardly needed any elaboration.
“I knew I could play a lot better and I felt like I lost my rhythm in the second set”, Williams said on court afterwards. She came out to play good tennis. And if she was ever going to win this match, it was going to have to happen the way it nearly did: She’d have to be ready to chase down every ball Williams smashed back at her; she’d have to absorb the power Williams packs into her groundstrokes and snap off some winners herself; and she’d have to minimize her own mistakes and try to match Williams’ will and hope Williams gave her a glimmer of daylight here and there. Halep continued to have her chances in the second set, and she converted a hard-fought break at the fourth time of asking before consolidating for a 3-1 lead.
Halep, who entered the match as one of the winningest players this season, finally got her groove on midway through the set.
But she didn’t. And it wasn’t.
Ana Konjuh has opened some eyes at Flushing Meadows as the 18-year-old former world number one junior emerged to reach her first grand slam quarter-final at the U.S. Open. It will be interesting to see how Williams’ sore right shoulder, which has bothered her for weeks, will respond to back-to-back matches. Now she’s blown past that milestone, riding the momentum of a breakthrough title at Cincinnati, where she beat second-ranked Angelique Kerber in the final.
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Monfils, who turned 30 last week, only once before made it to a Grand Slam semifinal, 81/2 years ago in front of a partisan crowd at the French Open. But Serena did seem a bit intrigued when a reporter went on to mention that Plishkova also has a sister who plays on tour – but the Plishkovas are twins.
