Serena Williams on Wednesday fought off 10 set points to prevail in the greatest duel yet with sister Venus, a heart-stopping 7-6 7-6 victory that put her in the US Open semifinals.
Played with uncommon ferocity and passion from both combatants, Serena emerged triumphant in the gruelling two hour, 25 minute battle to reach the final four at Flushing Meadows for the first time since her 2002 win.
The eight-time Grand Slam winner turned away two set points in the first 8-6 tiebreaker and eight more in the second set, including four in the final 9-7 tiebreak, which ended with a Venus forehand drive landing beyond the baseline.
”I can’t believe I won,” Serena said courtside. ”Wow.”
With the victory Serena edged to a 9-8 advantage in her head-to-head sibling rivalry with Venus.
Serena put on an amazing display of athleticism, racing from corner to corner to retrieve rocket forehands from Venus, stretching, straining and even sliding into a full split along the baseline trying to run down a blast.
The thrilling triumph sent Serena to a semifinal match against sixth-seeded Dinara Safina of Russia, a 6-2 6-3 winner over Italy’s Flavia Pennetta. Friday’s other women’s semifinal will have second seed Jelena Jankovic going against fifth-seeded Olympic champion Elena Dementieva.
One of the semifinalists will supplant Ana Ivanovic of Serbia as world number one at the end of the tournament.
Venus ripped 36 winners but was guilty of 45 unforced errors. Her greatest lapse was while serving for the second set at 5-3, 40-0. She squandered three set points, making five successive errors that brought the set back on serve.
Good closer
”I’m a very good closer,” said Venus, a seven-time Grand Slam winner and like Serena a double Open champion. ”I never had a match like that in my life. But I guess there’s always a first. I guess she played a little better.
”I think she gets back a lot more balls than the others. If it was someone else I probably would have won the match.”
Venus led 6-3 in the second tiebreaker but three errors brought it back even. A backhand volley by Serena spoiled another Venus set point at 7-6 before two more errors by Venus ended it 9-7 in Serena’s favour.
”She played some great volleys and got a lot of balls back,” said Venus, who beat Serena in the Wimbledon final in July for her fifth All England Club title.
”It’s not what I planned.” — Reuters