OK doke so now we get onto the semi finals of this year's US Open and this post will cover the ladies matches and we will find out who reached the final. I was initially going to do one post and combine both the men's and ladies matches but I decided instead to do two separate posts so I will be back soon with the men's matches.
Anyway I digress so let's take a look at these uns and see how it went......
So.... starting with the ladies the first match was between Flavia Pennetta and the No.2 seed Simona Halep in a match that appeared to favour (on paper anyway) Halep who had previously reached a major final at the French open last year. However Pennetta went into this match leading their head to head 3-1 which suggested that just maybe she had a chance here. And from the first set it looked to be so as Pennetta outclassed Halep who made a series of errors in trying to push her opponent around which saw Pennetta grab the double break to take the opener. In the 2nd set however Halep started to fight back and took a 3-1 lead as she look poised to level the match. But again Pennetta came back at Halep and broke back to level and she went on to break a hapless Halep (sorry couldn't resist!) and she served out the biggest match of her career so far to reach her first ever grand slam final with a commanding 6-1, 6-3 victory.
Well this was a terrific result for Pennetta who had previously made the US Open semi finals two years ago and Flushing Meadows it appears has always been where she has excelled in the majors over the years. And its always great to see different players have the opportunity to reach the finals of the biggest events in the sport. As for Halep well it was a pretty disappointing performance as she simply made too many errors and was unable to capitalise on her break in the 2nd set and no doubt it wouldn't have been the way she would have wanted her tournament to end especially given as she appeared to be the favourite to reach the final. But in the meantime Pennetta deserves all the credit for reaching her first major final and she might just be in with a chance of winning depending on who would emerge the victor in the next ladies match.
And this match was betweem Serena Williams, the World No.1 and the unseeded Roberta Vinci (the World No. 41) in a match which Serena was clearly the favourite to win given that she had a perfect 4-0 record going into this match and she hadn't even dropped a set against the Italian player. And the match itself started off much the way everyone expected with Serena dominating her dimunitive 5ft 4 inch opponent by grabbing a double break to close the first set. In the 2nd set however much to the surprise of the audience and probably Serena, Vinci started a terrific fightback as she broke Serena and levelled the match at a set all. And in the 3rd set against all the odds, Vinci despite going a break down, broke back and she proceeded to defy all expectations as she broke Serena and went on to serve out the match to love, pulling off one of the sport's greatest ever upsets as Vinci dashed Serena's hopes of winning a calendar slam with a stunning 2-6, 6-4, 6-4 victory.
I think its safe to say that no one would ever have predicted this result and even Vinci herself said in her post match interview that she could scarcely believe that she had won the match. Serena Williams started off the match very strong but as it went on she appeared to unravel and in the end she couldn't cope with Vinci clever mix of slices and deft touch that left the World No.1 guessing as well as frustrated as she even smashed her racquet after losing the 2nd set. But Vinci deserves all the plaudits for her stellar performance as she played the match of her life to end Serena's hopes of the calendar slam and she sets up an all Italian final for the first time in the history of the game.
Which brings me onto my thoughts on who might win the ladies final. So who will win it???? Well..... this for me is a difficult one to assess as I don't know either ladies game's that well enough but the pundits have opted for Pennetta as the favourite to win the title. But if you look at their head to head its pretty close as Pennetta edges it 4-3 although if you also look at their match record none of their matches have gone to 3 sets and have all been decided in two straight sets. So this match might be harder to predict than people might think. On the face of it I would go with Pennetta right enough as on the singles front she has achieved more than Vinci and she won the singles title at Indian Wells last year, which is one of the biggest events on the tour outside the slams. However Vinci is also a multiple grand slam doubles champion and just maybe she could use her winning mentality to beat her Italian compatriot.
So....for my prediction I'm going to go with Pennetta and I think she might win it in straight sets but I think it could be a close match with maybe a tiebreak involved. I also think that it could be a highly entertaining match as well and we are bound to see a fair bit of variety on court and not just baseline bludgeoning, which will hopefully make this match a breath of fresh air. So my scoreline prediction for this match (for what little its worth!) is 7-6, 6-3 to Pennetta, which would see her claim her first major title.
And that's it for my look at the ladies semis and I will be back soon with the men's.
See you in a bit!
No comments:
Post a Comment