One more win.
One more win in the US Open, and Serena Williams will clinch her 24th major singles trophy, matching Margaret Court’s record for the most Grand Slam titles in tennis history.
Entering the tournament, the American superstar was seeded 17th, nine spots above her current ranking. But the draw handed to her wasn’t an easy one.
Serena met her sister and 16th seed Venus Williams in the third round, but cruised past one of her ‘oldest opponents’ with a lopsided 6-1, 6-2 win. After moving past Kanepi in a three-set encounter, Williams set up a quarter-final against 8th seed Karolina Pliskova. She hadn’t won against a top-10 ranked player since the 2017 Australian Open, and got off to a shaky start against the last player she had lost to at the US Open.
After trailing 2-4, and making 22 of her 30 unforced errors in the first set, the World no 26 turned things around with an eight-game run to move into the semis with a 6-4, 6-3 win.
Serena went on to end her two-time losing streak in the semi-finals of the US Open, defeating 19th seed Anastasija Sevastova 6-3, 6-0 to enter her ninth final at New York’s Flushing Meadows.
The 36-year-old will now be playing 20th seed Naomi Osaka in the US Open final late on the night of Saturday, 8 September.
If one compares career numbers, 20-year-old Osaka is no match to her 23-time Grand Slam winning, 6-time US Open trophy lifting opponent Serena.
Naomi in fact, was just 3 months old when Serena played her first Grand Slam!
Asked how she managed to stave off all of those break chances in the semi-final, Osaka replied with a laugh, “This is going to sound really bad, but I was just thinking, ‘I really want to play Serena.’”
The 20-year-old tennis player has never won a major title, but created her own piece of history as she became the first Japanese woman to reach a Grand Slam singles final in the Open era.
In her first Grand Slam final, Osaka will be up against Serena, who is looking to win her 7th US Open. And if the American star clinches her first Grand Slam since making her comeback after giving birth, she will move ahead of Chris Evert’s 6 titles and become the most successful US Open champion in the Open era.
A few weeks ahead of her 37th birthday, a win will also make her the oldest woman to win a Slam in singles.
(With inputs from AP)
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