A rampaging Serena Williams moved to the brink of a record equalling 24th career Grand Slam title on Thursday storming past Elina Svitolina 6-3 6-1 to book her spot in the U.S. Open final. Meanwhile, Canadian teenager Bianca Andreescu’s dream run at the U.S. Open continued on Thursday as she powered past Belinda Bencic 7-6(3) 7-5 to set up a highly-anticipated final with Serena Williams on Saturday.
Since returning to action after the birth of her first child Williams has come agonisingly close to matching Margaret Court’s mark three times and will have a chance on Saturday to do so in front of an adoring home crowd for a second successive year. Last year Williams was left in tears following a chaotic and controversial loss to Naomi Osaka on Arthur Ashe Stadium. She has also lost two Wimbledon finals since her return.
Now all that stands between the 37-year-old and her Holy Grail is Canadian Bianca Andreescu or Swiss Belinda Bencic, who will meet in the other semi-final later on Thursday. The semi-final offered a classic matchup of styles with Williams and her prodigious power up against Svitolina, one of the best counter punchers in the women’s game. Williams did not have her ‘A’ game in warm conditions but the former-world number one knew exactly what was needed particularly on the big points.
The fifth seeded Ukrainian had no shortage of chances herself but could not convert any of six break opportunities. A ruthless Williams, however, bombarded Svitolina with punishing forehands and six aces to register her 101st U.S. Open win, which tied her with Chris Evert for the most at Flushing Meadows.
But as cold-blooded as those performances were, Williams 70-minute dismantling of Svitolina in front of a packed house said more by delivering an emphatic message she would not be content leaving Flushing Meadows without a share of Court’s record. Andreescu, who has already won titles at Indian Wells and Toronto during her breakout 2019 season, unleashed a torrent of bruising groundstrokes after falling behind 2-5 in the second set, winning five straight games to punch her ticket to her first Grand Slam final. After a strong start from the Swiss, momentum shifted on the first point of the first set tiebreak when Bencic double faulted and her previously immaculate play began to crumble.
Andreescu quickly ran out to a 5-0 lead in the breaker that she won comfortably to capture the first set. Bencic finally broke Andreescu to open the second set but despite stretching her lead to 5-2, Andreescu fed off the supportive crowd to level at 5-5 after another costly Bencic double fault.
A flustered Bencic struggled from there, giving a sarcastic thumbs up to the crowd when they applauded the double fault before sending a forehand into the net on match point to end the first-time encounter between two of the game’s rising stars. The final will pit power against power when Andreescu takes on her childhood hero Williams, who claimed her first U.S. Open title in 1999 before Andreescu was even born. Despite being sidelined at times with injury this year, Andreescu has been a giant slayer when healthy, posting a 7-0 record against top 10 opponents and a 33-4 record overall. Her route to the final has included wins over former world number one Caroline Wozniacki and rising Belgian Elise Mertens.
