Serena Williams twice came from behind to complete a nail-biting 7-6, 7-6 win over her older sister Venus and claim a place in the US Open semi-finals on Wednesday.
In a match of high quality where no quarter was given, Serena trailed 5-2 in the second set tiebreak before clawing her way back to seal victory in two hours, 25 minutes.
Twice champion Serena, the fourth seed, saved eight set points in the second set before seventh-seeded Venus hit a forehand long to surrender the match, losing the tiebreaker 9-7.
PHOTO: AFP
“It definitely felt like a final of the US Open, it was so hard,” a breathless Serena said in a courtside interview after hitting 24 winners and powering seven aces. “I can’t believe I won it. Wow!”
“I think we played a great match. It just boiled down to one point here and there. It could have gone anywhere. We were definitely playing the best [match of the tournament] so far,” she said.
Serena, who edged ahead 9-8 in overall meetings between the siblings, will next meet sixth-seeded Russian Dinara Safina for a place in the final.
PHOTO: EPA
Watched by a capacity crowd of 23,000 in the Arthur Ashe Stadium for the first match of the evening session, Venus made a confident start in the opening set.
Unleashing an array of devastating groundstrokes, the 28-year-old set up a break point in the third game of the match which she converted via a fortunate net cord.
Serving for the set at 5-4, she was then broken by her sister who clenched her right fist in celebration after forcing an error from Venus with a rasping forehand down the line.
After the next two games went with serve, Venus seized an early advantage in the tiebreak to lead 6-4 before Serena fought back to win the next four points to clinch the opening set in 66 minutes.
Venus again took the initiative in the second set, breaking Serena in the sixth game to open up a commanding 5-3 lead.
With the set seemingly within her grasp, she streaked into a 40-love lead on serve before inexplicably squandering three set points with a vulnerable backhand.
DEEP GROUNDSTROKES
Serena, who had been pinning her sister to the baseline with deep groundstrokes, earned a breakpoint which she won when Venus narrowly hit a backhand wide of the line.
The second set also went into a tiebreak and again the big-serving Venus appeared to be in control, earning a standing ovation after she won a protracted rally to take a 5-2 lead.
Serena, champion at Flushing Meadows in 1999 and 2002, refused to buckle and, with Venus beginning to lose control of her groundstrokes, the younger sister charged back and won the tiebreak 9-7 to finally book her place in the last four.
“I’m a very good closer so I’ve never had a match like this in my life,” Venus told reporters after losing to her sister for the sixth time in 11 grand slam encounters. “I guess there’s always a first.”
In the other women’s quarter-final Safina outclassed 16th-seeded Italian Flavia Pennetta 6-2, 6-3.
EXHAUSTION
Safina, who was on the brink of exhaustion before beating German Anna-Lena Groenefeld in the previous round, hammered 25 winners against Pennetta and never allowed her opponent to establish a foothold in the match.
“I think today maybe I can say finally I’m happy with myself, the way I played, because really I did what I had to do,” Safina said.
“I was aggressive on the court. I was following the ball every time. I think today finally I played my game,” she said.
Meanwhile men’s World No 1 Rafael Nadal advanced to his first US Open semi-final by battling back to defeat 35th-ranked American Mardy Fish 3-6, 6-1, 6-4, 6-2 in the early hours of yesterday morning.
The Spaniard ousted Fish after two hours and 40 minutes, finishing at 2:10am and thanking the fans who stayed to the end of a day full of long matches.
“For sure not the best conditions to play any match,” Nadal said. “Sometimes schedules are tough. Nothing to do, just accept, go on court and try my best.”
Nadal was also pleased to have reached the final four in all four Slam events this year thanks to his Flushing Meadows breakthrough.
“For me it was a very important win,” Nadal said. “It’s a very important thing for me to play all the semi-finals in the Grand Slams in the same year.”
“I’m very happy for being the first time in the semi-finals of the US Open,” he said. “For sure you want to play good in all places. In the past here I did not always do well.”
In tomorrow’s semi-finals, Nadal will face British sixth seed Andy Murray, who reached his first Grand Slam semi with a 7-6 (7/2), 7-6 (7/1), 4-6, 7-5 victory over Argentina’s Juan Martin Del Potro.
Nadal improved to 5-0 against Fish, who had not taken a set off the Spaniard until the clock struck midnight at Arthur Ashe Stadium.
Hard-serving Fish took advantage of his only break-point chance of the first set and denied Nadal on three break opportunities to claim the first set in 39 minutes, firing 23 winners and winning 16 of 18 first-serve points.
SPITTING MAD
Nadal broke Fish twice in the second set and again in the third without response. Nadal broke Fish at love in the third game of the fourth set, after which Fish spat on his racquet and smashed it on the ground during a changeover break.
Nadal broke again to 5-2 and held to finish the triumph.
Murray broke the 17th-seeded South American’s 23-match win streak, ensuring the lanky 21-year-old Scotsman would jump to a career-high fourth in the world rankings, matching the top mark by any man in British history.
Murray pushed Nadal to five sets in their first meeting, at last year’s Australian Open, but has not taken a set off him since.
MATCH POINTS
Serving to force a fourth-set tie-breaker, Del Potro netted a forehand to give Murray two match points. Del Potro saved the first with a service winner but sent a backhand wide to end the drama after three hours, 58 minutes.
By the end of the match Murray and del Potro looked like old friends.
The young stars put their arms around each other at the net, quite different to the scene they presented at the Italian Open in Rome in May.
Tempers flared during that match, with Murray claiming del Potro insulted his mother — Judy Murray provided vocal support for her son from the stands.
Del Potro nearly hit Murray in the head with a ball in the second set before the Argentine retired with a back injury.
This time Murray and the 19-year-old del Potro kept their anger in check. Murray patted his rival on the chest when it ended, and del Potro managed a smile.
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