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Wozniacki meets Kerber
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AT 4-all in the opening set of her US Open quarterfinal on Tuesday, Angelique Kerber noticed the loud roar of a jet flying past. She missed a shot, lost that point, glared overhead — then followed with a trio of unforced errors to get broken.
In the past, that sequence might have been her undoing. The distraction. The deficit. The opponent outplaying her. Not now, though. Kerber’s game has improved, sure, and so has her attitude. On Tuesday, she wouldn’t drop another game.
Making a push to move up from No. 2 in the rankings, and to earn a second grand slam title of 2016, Kerber moved into the semifinals at Flushing Meadows in New York by taking the last nine games in a 7-5, 6-0 victory over Roberta Vinci, last year’s runner-up.
“I know that I can beat everybody,” Kerber said, “and this is what gives me also a lot of confidence and motivation.”
She has a chance to overtake Serena Williams at No. 1 after the tournament and moved into her third major semifinal of the year, where she will take on Caroline Wozniacki, a two-time US Open runner-up who advanced with a 6-0, 6-2 victory over an Anastasija Sevastova of Latvia.
Sevastova twisted her right ankle on the first point of the second game and was unable to move properly the rest of the way against Wozniacki, a former No. 1 who is now ranked only 74th and hadn’t won a grand slam match in 2016 until last week.
It’s the fifth trip to the semifinals at Flushing Meadows for Wozniacki, who lost the 2009 final to Kim Clijsters and the 2014 final to her good friend Williams.
Kerber beat Williams in the Australian Open final this January, then lost to Williams in the Wimbledon final in July.
“In tough moments,” Vinci said about Kerber, “the mind is important.”
In 2015, Vinci reached her first major final by stunning Williams to end the American’s bid for the first calendar-year grand slam in tennis in more than a quarter-century.
But after being two points from taking the first set against Kerber while serving for it at 5-4, 30-all, the No. 7-seeded Vinci faltered badly. She missed a forehand long, then netted a backhand to get broken there — and that was just the beginning of her collapse.
Trailing 5-6, and serving at love-40, Vinci missed her first serve, then was called for a foot fault on a second serve. That resulted in a double-fault, ceding the set. The call also ended the competitive portion of Vinci’s quarterfinal: She managed to take only 10 of 38 points the rest of the way.
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