Williams sets up another final clash with Azarenka
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Serena Williams was cruising along in the US Open semifinals, serving up another bagel, when, out of nowhere, a competitive tennis match broke out.
Didn’t last long.
The defending champion won the first seven games of Friday’s match, then actually fell down a break early in the second set, before quickly regaining it on the way to a 6-0, 6-3 victory over fifth-seeded Li Na.
The day’s only drama came in the second-to-last game — an affair that went eight deuces and lasted 13 minutes, 49 seconds. Li saved six match points, but it only delayed the inevitable. Williams dropped two points in the next game, but ended it and let out a long, celebratory scream after a service winner. “It got tough at the end. I got a little nervous, but I was able to close it out finally,” Williams said.
The victory set up a rematch of last year’s final against Victoria Azarenka, who beat 83rd-ranked Flavia Pennetta 6-4, 6-2 in the earlier semifinal.
The first set of the Williams match marked the third straight set the No. 1 seed won at love, and when she held serve to open the second, she had won her 24th straight game of the tournament, dating to her match last Sunday against Sloane Stephens.
Nothing lasts forever, of course, though Williams is extending her string of dominance in the women’s game deep into a second decade.
Today’s match will mark her 21st grand slam final. She stands one win away from capturing her fifth US Open title and 17th major trophy. That would move her slam total just one shy of Martina Navratilova and Chris Evert for second on the all-time list behind the 22 of Steffi Graf.
This will be the first time the same two women have met in back-to-back finals at Flushing Meadows since it was Williams against her sister, Venus, in 2001-02. It will also mark the first 1 vs 2 final at the US Open since 2003, when No. 2 Justine Henin beat No. 1 Kim Clijsters.
Azarenka lost to Williams in a tense three-setter last year. But just last month, she beat Williams in a third-set tiebreaker in the final of a tune-up event in Cincinnati. “I know her strengths, she knows my strengths,” Azarenka said. “That’s what it’s all about, about those turning points, who wants it more, who’s willing to go for it more. It’s a bunch of combinations.”
For her match against Li, Williams wore pink shoes embroidered with tiny hearts on the heels, each of them with a number — ‘99, ‘02, ‘08, ‘12 — marking each year she hoisted the trophy in Queens.
She’s showing every sign she’ll need to add another heart, and Azarenka stands in her way. “We always have really good matches. I look forward to it,” Williams said. “It’s great to get to another final. She’s a great player.”
Azarenka, the 2012 and 2013 Australian Open champion, is trying to become the first woman to win the majors in Melbourne and New York in the same year since Martina Hingis in 1997.
If Friday’s proceedings at Arthur Ashe Stadium were any indication, Azarenka has some work to do. She won a push-fest against Pennetta. She won despite serving six double-faults as part of her 25 unforced errors, against only 15 winners.
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