US Open 2019 Women’s Semi-Final Highlights: Serena Williams is one win away from her 7th US Open title.US Open 2019 Women’s Semi-Final Highlights: Serena Williams defeated fifth-seeded Elina Svitolina by 6-3, 6-1 in the first US Open women’s singles semi-final late on Friday night.
Breezing past her opponent, breaking her thrice in the second set, Serena Williams took only 70 minutes to keep her dream of winning her 24th Grand Slam singles title alive. Although, Svitolina had not dropped a single set in this year’s tournament, she was easily dispatched by last year’s finalist.
Belinda Bencic, seeded 13th and Bianca Andreescu, seeded 15th, will contest the other semifinal.
Williams reaches her 10th US Open final
Svitolina (3-6), 1-6 S. Williams
Svitolina's serve, and Williams' unstoppable backhand makes it 0-15. Svitolina replies brilliantly with two brilliant dropshots making Serena cover some ground. 15-15. An ace makes it 30-15, but Serena's backhand again inflicts pain on Svitolina. An unforced error by Svitolina and it's 30-40. Match point for Serena from Svitolina's serve. But, Serena's backhand fails and it hits the nets, taking it into deuce. After Svitolina won the first advantage, Serena came out on the right end of a rally because of her immaculate forehand. And she gains the advantage, and another match point for her! Svitolina serves and after a rally, Serena's backhand leads her into the final.
Svitolina (3-6), 1-5 S. Williams
Serena has won the last 10 points now, and that just shows how brilliant she has been in the second set. She makes it an easy 15-0 in her serve. And it's 30-0, after Svitolina makes a schoolgirl error playing a skewed backhand volley. Although the fifth seed won a point in between, Serena's pinpoint forehand helps her to move another inch closer to reaching her 10th US Open final. The dream of reaching her first-ever Grand Slam final is slipping away from Svitolina's hands though.
Svitolina (3-6), 1-4 S. Williams
Svitolina's confidence has just been brought down to tatters, with an exquisite dropshot by Williams. 0-15. Serena makes it 0-30 quickly, and then 0-40, by playing an impossible forehand from an angle. What a fantastic display by the eighth seed. And she breaks again!
Svitolina (3-6), 1-3 S. Williams
Owing to her powerful serve and her 25 winners already in the match, Serena makes it an easy 30-0. Svitolina hits the return of the serve outside the court and it's 40-0. And Williams holds!
Svitolina (3-6), 1-2 S. Williams
After a brief rally, Svitolina makes it 15-0. After equalling it, Serena hit the nets and gifted a point to her opponent. After a brilliant rally of 14 shots, where Serena covered the entire surface of earth with a mixture of backhands and forehands, the American capitalises on Svitlona's wayward backhand. This is what peak Serena is like. After deuce, Serena wins the first advantage. And she breaks!
Svitolina (3-6), 1-1 S. Williams
What Svitolina can do, Serena can too. She returns the favour with two consecutive aces and makes it a quick 30-0. Svitolina soon makes it 30-15 after forcing Serena to hit it a little too long with her backhand. Serena's confident volley ended the rally to make it 40-30, after which she soon ends the game.
Svitolina (3-6), 1-0 S. Williams
Two easy points, one from a Serena error and Svitolina makes it 30-0. One ace, then another and she wraps the game up. She has started the second set brightly.
Svitolina 3-6 S. Williams
Serving for the first set, Serena's serve is absolutely ruined by Svitolina's magnificent running backhand. 0-15. And yet another winner makes it 30-15! Serena is indeed making Svitolina run quite hard with her aggressive play, keeping the control in her own racket. And she wins the first set!
Svitolina 3-5 S. Williams
Early on from Svitolina's serve, it's 15-15. A near-unreturnable serve makes it 30-15 in the Ukrainian's favour. After Williams equals the score, her weak backhand in the next serve makes it 40-30. And it's a deuce, again! Williams did bring a lot of winners in her bag. Svitolina doesn't waste much time, and after the advantage, she wraps the game up.
That bow!
Svitolina 2-5 S. Williams
Serena replies with an ace of her own in her serve, before making the Ukrainian run the entire length of the court and making it 30-0. Another ace makes it 40-0. And the eighth seed wins the game soon after!
Svitolina 2-4 S. Williams
Svitolina takes an easy 15-0 lead, before doubling it forcing Williams to hit a wayward backhand. Svitolina challenges the umpire for her serve, and it's an ace. 40-0. A bad backhand, but she wins the game soon after.
Svitolina 1-4 S. Williams
Serena loses the first two points in her serve, the second of which brought her unforced errors tally to 7. And then again, as her weak backhand hits the net. Svitolina's return on the next serve, and Serena's powerful backhand from a classic serve and volley scenario brought down the three break points to one. And the home girl makes it 40-40! After making her opponent go from one end to another, Williams makes a brilliant comeback and wins the game! Svitolina is 0-for-6 on break points so far.
Svitolina 1-3 S. Williams
After a break, the match resumes, with Svitolina making it 15-0 after a Williams error. She comes out on the right end of a long rally to win her second point of the game. Looking for her fourth consecutive point, she makes a meal of Williams' dropshot and gifts her a point. 40-15. But the fifth seed does win her first game of the semi-final soon after.
Svitolina 0-3 S. Williams
Serena starts with an ace. Then hits another. And with sheer power and concentration, she makes it easy game for herself by playing to her strengths. She holds to love.
Svitolina 0-2 S. Williams
Svitolina serves and gets her first three points with brilliant forehands and quick feet. Serena's powerful backhand forces a mistake from Svitolina, and she hits it long. 40-15. And somehow, Serena makes it 40-40 and has tightened up the game with a brilliantly angled backhand. The six-time champion soon gets the first advantage, but loses it after she makes an unforced error. Second advantage goes the American's way too, before she bowed before the crowd. Svitolina wins the next three advantages, before Serena wins another. After six deuces, Serena breaks! More than 9 minutes. What a semi-final we have here!
Svitolina 0-1 S. Williams
Serena Williams serves first and loses the first two points of the game with lacklustre returns. She takes back one point soon after, only for Svitolina sealing up her third point of the game with brilliant movement. Serena makes it 30-40 with an ace, and it's deuce after Svitolina hits the net with her forehand return. After three deuces, Serena wraps the nervy first game, where Svitolina has shown quite energetic to get her first break.
Roads to semi-final
Elina Svitolina won't be any pushover as she is the only one of the four who is yet to drop a set in the Grand Slam, beating Venus Williams in the second round, Madison Keys in R16, and Johanna Konta in the quarter-final. Meanwhile, Serena Williams defeated Maria Sharapova in the first round, Petra Martic in R16 and Wang Qiang in the quarter-final. The American dropped a set against Caty Mcnally in the second round.
Double hunt for Svitolina
After defeating Venus Williams in the second round, if the 24-year-old Ukrainian triumphs today, then Elina Svitolina would be the ninth player to beat both Williams sisters in the same tournament. It's not going to be easy for her, because it's the tenth straight US Open semi-final for Serena Williams.
Azarenka/Barty heading into final
In other news, in women’s doubles semi0, Victoria Azarenka and Ashleigh Barty lead Viktoria Kuzmova and Aliaksandra Sasnovich 6-0, 4-1.
Svitolina on the up
Serena making history?
Hello and welcome!
Hello and welcome to the US Open 2019 women's singles semi-final between Elina Svitolina vs six-time champion Serena Williams. The other semi-final is between Belinda Bencic and Bianca Andreescu. Stay tuned for more updates!