New York: A new Grand Slam champion will be crowned at the US Open after Sloane Stephens beat fellow American Venus Williams 6-1, 0-6, 7-5 in a rollercoaster of a semifinal here Thursday. She will face compatriot Madison Keys who ended the challenge of another American – Coco Vanderweghe 6-1, 6-2 with a ruthless display of power.
It will be the first time two American women have played for the title since 2002 when Venus lost to her younger sister Serena Williams.
Stephens, who returned to competition at Wimbledon after nearly a year off because of a foot injury, recovered from a second set meltdown to end ninth seed Venus’ hopes of reaching a third Major final this year.
“I have no words to describe what I’m feeling what it took to get here. The journey I took. I have no words,” said Stephens, who underwent foot surgery last February.
“If someone told me I’d make two semis and a Grand Slam final this year I would have passed out, which is what I feel like doing now. I don’t know how I got here. Hard work, that’s it,” added Stephens.
Despite her lack of match play this year, Stephens began confidently and broke for 3-1 when Venus netted a routine forehand and then went on to win the last three games of the set as the 37-year-old strangely appeared to struggle with serve.
Venus was in danger again on her first service game in the second set but she managed to hold and broke in the next game thanks to a Stephens double fault.
She then held to love to stamp her domination on the second set and moved 4-0 up with a lovely service return followed by a routine volley as Stephens showed she was clearly struggling and lost the set to love when she hit yet another unforced error.
The 24-year-old Stephens, however, got back on track in the decider, taking a 1-0 lead on Venus’ serve when the latter netted an easy volley. However, Venus was quick to hit back and broke back to level the score at 2-2.
What followed was a nightmare on service games for both players. Stephens broke Venus to lead 4-3, but then lost her own serve again. It was then in the 11th game, that the course of the match swung in the youngster’s favour as she netted a backhand volley to give Stephens a 6-5 lead. Stephens then closed out the match easily.
Keys had no such problems against Vanderweghe. She put her serves at the right place, hit winners at will as Vanderweghe looked listless. She never faced a breakpoint and committed just nine unforced errors while firing 25 winners.
Results
Sloane Stephens bt Venus Williams 6-1, 0-6, 7-5
Madison Keys bt Coco Vanderweghe 6-1, 6-2
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