The US Open is approaching its business end and the top two in both the men’s and women’s division will be expected to contest the respective finals over the weekend.
The world’s top two men, Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer, remain on track to meet in the men’s final, while women’s world number one Serena Williams is just two wins away from completing the first Calendar Grand Slam in 27 years.
Djokovic maintained his undefeated record in quarter-final matches at Flushing Meadows by defeating Spaniard Feliciano Lopez in four sets, thrusting him into a semi-final showdown against defending champion Marin Cilic.
It was his second consecutive four-set win after he also dropped a set against Spaniard Roberto Bautista-Agut in the fourth round. Prior to that, he had won his first three matches in straight sets.
It’s expected the 2011 champion will advance to his sixth final in New York, given his record against Cilic who is yet to defeat the Serb in 13 meetings, the most recent of which was in the quarter-finals at Wimbledon in July.
Cilic, for his part, withstood a five-set challenge from Jo-Wilfried Tsonga to reach his second consecutive US Open semi-final, and it’s against Djokovic whom his title defence will face its biggest test yet.
The Croat has, throughout his five matches at Flushing Meadows, relished the pressure of being a defending Grand Slam champion, winning his first two matches in straight sets before being stretched to five sets by Mikhail Kukushkin and Tsonga on either side of a four-set win over Jeremy Chardy in the fourth round.
A Swiss is guaranteed to be represented in the US Open final for the first time since 2009, but just exactly who it is will be determined in the other semi-final to be played on Saturday morning (AEST).
For the first time, Roger Federer and Stan Wawrinka will face off in a Grand Slam semi-final, as well as at the US Open, the pair having met at each of the other three major tournaments in different stages, including in the quarter-finals of the French Open earlier this year.
Back then, Wawrinka defeated his more successful counterpart in straight sets en route to his second Grand Slam title. If he is to repeat that result in New York, and assuming that Djokovic makes it through to the final, then the 30-year-old will be every chance of winning his third Grand Slam title on Monday morning.
Wawrinka defeated each of the world’s top two, and the world number one in the final, en route to his two major titles. He defeated Federer and Novak Djokovic to win the French Open in June while he defeated Djokovic and then-top-ranked Rafael Nadal to win his first Grand Slam title at the Australian Open last year.
However, it is Federer who is favoured to move through to the final after giving up just seven games to Richard Gasquet in his quarter-final match. Wawrinka was equally as impressive though, dropping eight to Kevin Anderson.
Federer is hoping to make his first US Open final since he lost to Juan Martin del Potro in a classic six years ago, while Wawrinka is hoping to reach his third Grand Slam final and second this year.
The two women’s semi-finals will see top-seeded Serena Williams face off against veteran Italian Roberta Vinci, while second-placed Simona Halep is up against another Italian veteran in Flavia Pennetta.
Williams continued her march to the Calendar Grand Slam by defeating elder sister Venus in three sets while Vinci also required three sets to defeat French rising star Kristina Mladenovic.
It wasn’t any easier in the bottom half with Halep overcoming a lengthy rain delay to see off the challenge of 20th-seeded Belarusian Victoria Azarenka, while Pennetta had to come from behind to overcome fifth-seeded Petra Kvitova.
Of the four women’s semi-finalists, only Serena Williams has reached the final in New York, which makes her the prohibitive favourite to advance to a fifth consecutive final, and ninth overall, at her national championships.
In fact, she hasn’t been beaten in the semi-final stage at the US Open, let alone at any Grand Slam tournament, since her infamous “I didn’t say I would kill you, are you serious?” outburst against Kim Clijsters at Flushing Meadows in 2009.
Halep is the only other player to have reached a Grand Slam singles final, when she did so at the French Open last year. She lost to Maria Sharapova in the tournament’s first three-set women’s final since 2001.
That makes her the favourite to progress from the bottom half of the draw, though she will have to overturn a poor record against Flavia Pennetta to progress to her second Grand Slam final.
The Romanian has lost three of her four meetings against the Italian, including in the fourth round of the US Open in 2013. However, her only win was in the most recent meeting between the pair, in Miami earlier this year.
Should the favourites progress, it would be the second time in three years that both the men’s and women’s US Open finals would be contested between the world’s top two in each division.
The women’s semi-finals take place on Friday morning from 9:00am (AEST) while the men’s will be played on Saturday morning (AEST).
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