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128 women started in the field, and now only four remain in contention for the final Grand Slam tournament of 2013.
Three of the four women are over the age of 30, meaning that the potential is there for the oldest women’s champion to be crowned from the top half of the draw.
The other semifinal will pit the youngest player left in the draw against a player who is coming back from a career-threatening wrist injury.
Let’s have a look at the two semifinals in full detail:
Serena Williams (1) versus Li Na (5)
Head-to-head: Williams 8-1
Last meeting: Williams. 7-5, 7-5, semifinals, 2013 Cincinnati Masters
This meeting will pit two of the three oldest women remaining in the draw (Li Na is only one day older than Flavia Pennetta, the youngest of the 30-somethings that remain in the draw) and this match promises to be a beauty.
Serena Williams has coasted through her five matches, losing just thirteen games in the process, but this will not mean that she will have everything go her way in this semifinal.
Why do I say this? Look back to the 2013 Australian Open semifinal between Maria Sharapova, who had coasted through the draw there, and Li Na, who had come in without the concession of a set.
Sharapova had been heavily favoured to make the final, but it was Li Na who gave her a brutal tennis lesson, losing just four games in the process.
Williams will be wary about what Li had been able to achieve in Australia, whereby she doused the threat of Sharapova and what would have been yet another noisy final between her and Victoria Azarenka.
The American, chasing her 17th Grand Slam title and fifth at Flushing Meadows, was at her rampaging best in the quarterfinals, showing Spain’s Carla Suarez Navarro no mercy in a 50-minute clinic which will have her rivals running scared.
Li on the other hand, survived a three-set thriller against Russia’s Ekaterina Makarova and is thus into the semifinals of the US Open for the first time, leaving Wimbledon as the only Grand Slam in which she has yet to pass the quarterfinal barrier.
Li has a poor record against Williams, only being able to beat her once, that coming at Stuttgart in 2008. Williams also won their most recent meeting at Cincinnati last month.
Key: It was Li who beat the red-hot Sharapova Down Under earlier this year. Can she also douse the red-hot run of Williams?
Prediction: Williams in straight sets.
Flavia Pennetta versus Victoria Azarenka (2)
Head-to-head: One-all
Last meeting: Pennetta. 6-3, 6-7 (2-7), 6-4, 2011 Dubai Tennis Championships
This match will pit two players who are on contrasting paths – the second-hottest player at the moment and one player who is on the way back from a serious wrist injury which sent her crashing down to 166 earlier this year.
Victoria Azarenka has not relented as she bids to win her first US Open title, so far winning her first five matches without any real fuss, even though she was challenged by Alize Cornet and Ana Ivanovic in earlier rounds.
The Belarusian has endured her fair share of injuries this year but when she is at her best, she is simply unstoppable. She is on a current 10-match winning streak, including victories over several big names including Caroline Wozniacki, Jelena Jankovic, Serena Williams, Ana Ivanovic and now Daniela Hantuchova.
She will be heavily favoured to reach the US Open final for the second consecutive year, where she can plan her redemption path after losing last year’s thriller to Serena Williams, having been two points away from the title.
Standing in the way of her and the title match is the forgotten woman of Italian tennis, Flavia Pennetta.
Now ranked 83 after a long injury lay-off, Pennetta has rediscovered her best form at her favourite Grand Slam tournament, where she had previously reached the quarterfinals three times, and is now into her first Grand Slam semifinal at the age of 30.
If there is any hope that she has of causing an upset, then Pennetta need not look as far back as their most recent meeting, in Dubai two-and-a-half years ago.
It was that victory over Azarenka which almost prompted the Belarusian to quit playing tennis professionally, but a conversation with her mother led to her reversing the decision and continuing to play very well.
But how will Flavia Pennetta handle playing in the semifinals of a Grand Slam tournament for the first time?
Key: This will be Pennetta’s first final four at a Grand Slam, while for Azarenka this will be her seventh.
Prediction: Azarenka in straight sets.
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