All American Women’s US Open Semi-Finals: Preview

An all-American semi-finals line-up awaits us at the US open today, in the women’s singles. Like a comet visiting us, it hasn’t been an American affair since 36 years. We look at the key aspects of the two match ups.

Venus Williams vs Sloane Stephens

Venus is the oldest woman to make it to the US open semi-final in the open era. Just like Federer, having battling physical fatigue and sickness issues, Williams has had a wonderful year so far, as she looks to make it to the third major semi-final this season. Her opponent Sloan Stephens, who is a handful of years younger than her, has won the only time they have met (2015 French Open). However, she has nothing but profound respect for her opponent. “I think Venus is just our leader,” said Stephens. “I think as a whole, she’s just what everyone looks up to. She’s a great player, a great person. She’s a great leader. Being on Fed Cup teams with her, there is not anything bad you can say about Venus. I’m just honored to be able to play at the same time as her. I’m happy she’s still playing. She means a lot to the game”-Stephens said. Venus is guaranteed to rise to number five the next week, and will make it to world number two provided she lifts her first US open title since 2001.

Madison Keys vs. CoCo Vandeweghe

Madison Keys will take on Coco Vandeweghe, in the second semi-final, and she leads their head to head 2-0. However, Keys has had a much easier route to the semis that her opponent. Coco has had a magical tournament so far, beating some of the best players on the tour against the odds. Coco has to go through the likes of Alison Riske, the doubles top seed Lucie Safarova, the polish Agnieszka Radwanska, and the world no.1 Karolina Pliskova. The power hitting of Coco will be put to test against the much more all-rounded play of Madison Keys- a fact that Coco realizes.”I think it depends on me, mostly, because similar to today and the other day against Lucie, Madison is a player that can take control of the points and of the rallies,” Vandeweghe said. “I think if I allow her to do that, then she’s going to be on the winning side of the coin. Similar to Pliskova today and Lucie the other day. So I think it’s definitely going to depend on me and making sure she’s not capable of doing that.”-said Coco.

Both the matches are scheduled to take place in the Arthur Ashe stadium in the evening, with Venus and Sloan kicking things off.