The US superstar has won seven of eight career meetings with Halep, the Romanian taking a surprise 6-0, 6-2 victory at the 2014 WTA Finals.
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Up next for Monfils will be a matchup against No. 1 Novak Djokovic, the defending champion, or No. 9 Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, whose quarterfinal was scheduled for Tuesday night. “Just going for it and just trying to stay a little bit relaxed when it’s close and just go for it when I have the chance”.
“I’m aware I’ll need to do that again if I want to beat him, because he’s one of the best players in the world”. “I think that is something that is super important”. A foot-fault on set point, combined with a distraction from the crowd, was Vinci’s downfall, Kerber broke for 7-5, and Vinci’s game fell away.
The world No. 1 lost her first set of the tournament, but rallied in the third with her powerful best en route to a 6-2, 4-6, 6-3 win over No. 5 seed Simona Halep, booking herself in a 10th career semifinal in NY.
“I was a completely different player at that time, so I improved a lot and obviously she probably as well”, Pliskova said.
Serena Williams has passed all of her tests as she prepares to play her quarterfinal match Wednesday night.
Williams has won all four of her matches in straight sets, but she has not faced a seeded opponent to this point.
“It was good to have them back at practice today”, O’Brien said. “That’s something I’m really proud of'”.
The shoulder is holding up: Serena pulled out of Cincinnati three weeks ago after accepting a late wild card into the draw; a right shoulder injury was the culprit. A break in the fourth game was enough to give her the third set 6-3 and a place in the semifinal of US Open for the 11th time.
Williams hit 50 winners and 43 unforced errors compared to Halep’s 20 winners and 17 unforced errors.
Shvedova, a Grand Slam champion in doubles, looked steady in the opening games of the second set after losing the first, but whiffed a ball at 2-3 30-15 and then never recovered. After a scratchy third-round win over Paolo Lorenzi, Murray crushed lackadaisical No. 22 seed Grigor Dimitrov in the fourth round, dropping only five games.
The first two points in the match were hard-hitting aces which left 47th ranked Larsson frozen in her tracks. “I mean, when I was a kid, I was always dreaming (of) being the No. 1”. I think that makes me really calm, is the fact that I know I can play so much better and I have to, I know that. “That’s how I go into these matches now”.
Kerber’s first U.S. Open semifinal since 2011 will come against an unseeded player, either two-time runner-up Caroline Wozniacki or Anastasija Sevastova. Radwanska also has a shot at No. 1, as well, though the Pole must win the title outright.
Williams collected her 308th grand slam to move past Roger Federer, who is now injured, for the top spot on the all-time list. But the German can ill afford to lose to last year’s finalist Roberta Vinci, the seventh seed from Italy. Halep, last year’s Open semifinalist, held serve in the fourth game to get on the board and that appeared to kick-start her match.
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But Konjuh, who is projected to rise from 92nd in the world to 51, couldn’t be disappointed with her fortnight’s work.
