Serena and Safina advance to semis at US Open
September 4, 2008
Serena Williams has overcome big sister Venus to advance to the semifinals of the US Open. She will meet Dinara Safina.
Serena was pushed to the limit in a top quality match against the 2008 Wimbledon champion. It was in the final at Wimbledon where the two Williams girls last met. In today’s match Serena came out on top 7-6(6), 7-6(7).
Both sets followed a similar pattern. There was a break apiece before the set ended up being decided in a tiebreak. In the second set Venus had the set in her sights before the never say die attitude of Serena saw her come back from set points down to snatch the set and with it the match. All up Serena saved eight set points in the second set.
In the earlier match Safina had easily accounted for Italy’s Flavia Pennetta. She won 6-2, 6-3 to move into her first ever US Open semifinal. Safina earlier this year was runnerup in the French Open.
We now have the situation where the four semifinalists will be fighting it out for the title of US Open champion and also for the top spot in the WTA rankings.
The semi finals see Safina play Serena Williams and Elena Dementieva plays Jelena Jankovic. The head to head for Safina and Williams is 3-1 in favor of Williams. They have met once before at the US Open way back in 2002. On that occasion Serena belted Safina. That is so long ago it counts for nothing.
Jankovic leads her head to head matchup with Dementieva 4-3. The pair met in the 2006 quarterfinals at the US Open where on that occasion Jankovic won 6-2, 6-1. Dementieva has been playing well over recent times and could get past Jankovic to reach the final.
Comments
Got something to say?
