OK due to being busy with other stuff I've fallen behind with my coverage of this year's US Open, the final grand slam of the tennis season so rather than go into full detail of the preview rounds I thought I would do a very quick recap of the results so far. And by that I mean I will quickly mention which seeds went out and who are still in for the ladies in this post and I will get to the men's in the next one.
So without further delay let's get started....
Right so starting with the ladies most of the seeds have of course tumbled by the wayside and there quite a few early casulaties among them starting with French open finalist and 6th seed, Lucie Safarova who lost out in the first round. Then there was Caroline Wozniacki who suffered an early second round defeat to Petra Cetkovska in a tough three set match. Ana Ivanovic was the first big casualty of the ladies tournament has she went down also in three sets to Dominika Cibulkova who had just returned from injury. Agnieszka Radwanska who has been struggling with her form this year also suffered an early defeat at the hands of the American, Madison Keys who beat her in straight sets to end her major campaign. And Jelena Jankovic was also toppled early on in the first round to Oceane Dodin of France in a close three setter.
As for the slightly later round defeats Sabine Lisicki suffered a fourth round defeat to Simona Halep as the two of them battled it out during extreme heat and at one point their match was suspended as the officials put the heat policy in place to allow the players time to cool off before they match resumed which saw Simona beat Lisicki in three sets. Madison also was handed a straight set loss at the hands of the World No.1 Serena Williams in the fourth round. And Sam Stosur took on Flavia Pennetta in the fourth round who has done very well at the US Open in the past and unfortunately for Stosur has never lost against her so the Aussie lost the match in straight sets which saw Pennetta advance to the quarter finals. Eugenie Bouchard unlike the others however had made it into the fourth round after beating Dominika Cibulkova but she suffered a head injury in the locker rooms which unfortunately lead to her withdrawal from the tournament. And last of all Great Britain's Johanna Konta who had made an impressive run into the fourth round of a major for the first time in her career lost out to Petra Kvitova in straight sets.
As for the ladies quarter final matches the American crowds were treated to four tight battles starting with Serena Williams who took on her older sister, Venus in a clash of the siblings which after both players sharing the first two sets it say Serena take the decider to reach the semis and keep her chance of winning the calendar slam alive. Then there was Roberta Vinci who played Kristina Mladenovic in a very close three set battle which eventually saw Vinci emerge the winner. Flavia Pennetta then took on Petra Kvitova in another three set match which again saw both players split the first two sets but Pennetta then used her experience to dump out Kvitova as she reached the semi final of the US Open for a second time in the decider. And last of all in another high quality match Simona Halep squared off against Victoria Azarenka in a hard fought match which saw play suspended due to rain in the 3rd set after which after resuming saw Halep beat Vika and reach her first US Open semi final in 3.
Which brings me onto the ladies semi final previews starting with the first one which will be between Serena Williams and Roberta Vinci with their head to head overwhelmingly in favour of Serena 4-0. So I think the winner of this one is a no brainer as Serena has never even dropped a set to Vinci and at her home slam I don't think she is going to start now as Vinci hasn't taken anymore than four games off Serena in one set at a time. And by winning this match Serena will certainly put herself in a strong position to win the title as she will go into the final having expended little energy having dropped only two sets so far. And sadly for Vinci she doesn't really have any weapons to threaten Serena's might and her court craftiness and doubles skills will not be enough so in the end I think it will be a straight set win for Serena and my score prediction (and these things are never accurate) will be something along the lines of 6-3, 6-2.
And lastly the second ladies semi final will be between Simona Halep and Flavia Pennetta however despite the gulf in their seedings (Halep is 2nd and Pennetta is 26th) its actually Pennetta that leads their head to head 3-1 but Halep won their most recent match in straight sets in Miami earlier this year. So this one might could be a close match and given Pennetta's previous form at the US Open she could still have a chance against the No.2 seed. However I still have to go with Halep for this one as she has improved her form drastically since their second to last meeting in 2013 where Pennetta beat her coincidentally also at the US Open in straight sets. But as I said I still think this will be a very tight match and it could go deep into a third set but ultimately I think Halep's experience of having reached a major final already will get her over the finish line to reach her second career grand slam final. So my score prediction (for what its worth!) will be 6-3, 2-6, 7-5 to Simona.
So that's it for my look at the ladies US Open so far and I will be back soon with an update of the men's matches.
See you soon.....
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