Right, I'm way behind with starting these posts so I figured rather than do a big detailed list of the matches and the seeds that went out and who is still let's keep it even more concise to catch up for once. So I will quickly list how the 1st week went and into the 2nd week up until the semi finals, which take place tomorrow for the ladies match, which is what I will cover in this first post.
And with that let's take a look....
1ST WEEK SEEDS OUT
Right in the first week we had a number of seeds go out early such as Ana Ivanovic who lost out to Denise Allertova in straight sets. Sara Errani also suffered a first round defeat at the hands of the American, Shelby Rodgers who also won in straight sets. Kiki Bertens went out too in the first round as she was beaten by Ana Konjuh in a close three set match.
As for some of the top seeds inside the top 10 and 20 we first off had a big upset with Garbine Muguruza, the reigning French Open champion, going out in the second round to Anastasia Sevastova in straight sets. Svetlana Kuznetsova also went out at the hands of a resurgent Caroline Wozniacki who beat the former US Open champion in straight sets. Sam Stosur, the former 2011 champion, also went out in the 2nd round as she lost to Zhang Shuai of China with a straight set defeat. Timea Bacsinszky too went down to the American player, Varvara Lepchenko in the second round with a three set loss.
As for the 3rd round defeats there was Dominika Cibulkova, who suffered a three set loss to the Ukranian player, Lesia Tsurenko. Elena Vesnina also lost out to Carla Suarez Navarro in a straight sets match in the last 32. Caroline Garcia of France too was beaten by the Polish No.1, Agnieszka Radwanska in straight sets. And lastly Elina Svitolina of the Ukraine suffered her loss at the hands of the two time Wimbledon champion, Petra Kvitova who beat Elina in straight sets.
2ND WEEK MATCHES LAST 16 AND QUARTER FINALS
Now for the 2nd week matches and I will cover up until the quarter finals and I will kick off with the 4th round matches (and why not??). So in the 4th round we had a big upset for the British No.1, Johanna Konta, who took on Anatasija Sevastova of Latvia, however the Latvian proved too good for Konta who sufferd a straight sets defeat to deny her a place in her first US Open quarter final.
As for the wins well we had Caroline Wozniacki, who has been in great form in this tournament and seems to be getting back to her best after suffering a long slump this year and last year. And here Caroline took on Madison Keys and she went on to stun the 8th seed in straight sets 6-3, 6-4 to reach her first major quarter final in two years. And Caroline went on to beat Anatasija Sevastova in the quarter finals in straight sets to reach the last four with an emphatic 6-0, 6-2 victory.
Angelique Kerber who is still vying for the No.1 ranking showed her great form by beating Petra Kivtova in the last 16 and advancing in straight sets with a 6-3, 7-5 win. And Angie went on to face last year's finalist, Roberta Vinci and despite winning a tight first set, Kerber went on to run away with the match and thrashed Vinci with a bagel and sealed her semi final spot in 7-5, 6-0.
Karolina Pliskova, who has shown great form so far this year continued to show her grit as she took on the mighty Venus Williams in their 4th round match, which turned into an epic battle, which went right down to the wire. And despite a valiant battle from the former World No.1 in Venus, it was Pliskova who won a decisive final set tiebreak to reach the quarter finals with a thrilling 4-6, 6-4, 7-6 win. Pliskova would then go on to face the surprise quarter finalist, Ana Konjuh, who was no match for Pliskova who trounced Konjuh in straight sets 6-2, 6-2, to reach her first grand slam semi final.
And last of all Serena Williams, has shown her impressive form again in this tournament as she strolled her way through the first week into the quarter finals by beating Yaroslava Shvedova in straight sets 6-2, 6-3. However Serena encountered her first test of the tournament when she took on Simona Halep in the quarter finals as the dimunitive Romanian took a set against the American before Serena was able to close out the match in the 3rd with a 6-2, 4-6, 6-3 win.
SEMI FINALS PREDICTION
So......! This sets up the ladies semi final matches and what matches they promise to be as it will see four great players go at it for the right to reach the final. So let's have a quick look at both of these matches and give a prediction....
Serena Williams vs Karolina Pliskova
This is a very intriguing match and even though Serena goes into it as the heavy favourite, they still have only played once and that was two years ago in Stanford where Serena won in straight sets.
However Pliskova has become a much better player since then and she has beaten several big names, most notably Angelique Kerber in Cincinnati, where Pliskova denied Kerber the No.1 spot in the final. Pliskova also has a pretty big serve too in her arsenal, which will do her good against the might of Serena, so if she can get a high percentage of first serves in she can make life difficult for the World No.1.
But....despite all this I still have to go with Serena but I think this could be a fairly close match and I think Serena will win it in two close sets, let's say Williams d. Pliskova 7-6, 6-4.
Angelique Kerber vs Caroline Wozniacki
This is promises to be a real humdinger of a match as both these ladies have quite an interesting rivalry with one another, although it is Kerber that leads their head to head 7-5 but they have split their last four matches with two wins apiece, so this really could be a close one. Not only that there are two other factors to consider too, first off: Caroline has rediscovered her form in this tournament so an upset is possible here and secondly: Kerber is still trying to go for the top spot so she is bound to feel the pressure here and this could lead to the upset.
However as for my prediction I still have to side with Kerber on this one as she is the current World No.2 and a real in form player who has already won a slam whereas Caroline has yet to and unfortunately may well not do before her career is over. But this should still be a cracking match and I think it will go to three sets but Kerber should emerge as the winner, so for what its worth my prediction will be Kerber d. Wozniacki 6-2, 3-6, 7-5.
Right, so that's it for my look at the ladies matches and I will be back soon with my update on the men's matches.
So see you soon....
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