Venus Williams is chasing her first grand slam title since 2008, but will have to reverse history to keep her run alive against 13th seed Petra Kvitova in the quarter-finals of the US Open. Join The Roar for live scores from 9am (AEST).
Williams, at 37 years old, is one of the most experienced players in the field, but hasn’t experienced grand slam success since 2008. It’s even longer since her last victory at Flushing Meadows, which came in 2001.
It’s been a strong tournament in 2017 for the home country though, with three women in the final eight. Williams is joined by Coco Vandeweghe and Madison Keys, who could form the top half of the draw’s semi-final.
After indifferent form before the final grand slam of the year, Williams has been somewhere near her best in New York.
She started out taking three sets to go past Viktoria Kuzmova, her serve struggling to be consistent. You can normally tell exactly how Williams is playing based on her serve early in the piece, and it was better in the next two rounds as she went past Oceane Dodin and Maria Sakkari in straight sets.
Carla Suarez Navarro represented a stronger challenge in the third round as she took the second set, but it was nothing to slow down Williams.
Up the other end of the court, the 13th seed Kvitova is yet to lose a set in Flushing Meadows. After three more or less expected victories over Jelena Jankovic, Alize Cornet and Caroline Garcia, it was her fourth round effort which has made everyone sit up and take notice.
Taking on Wimbledon champion Garbine Muguruaza, she caused a huge upset by picking up a 7-6, 6-3 victory. While her first serve wasn’t that good, it stood up when it counted as Muguruza could only win three of 12 break points. Up the other end, Kvitova made the most of her fewer opportunities, winning four of seven.
While Kvitova didn’t play the perfect match, she stood up in all the big moments and will need to do so again against Williams.
The pair have met six times previously with Kvitova winning five of them.
Prediction
Williams has power on her side, but after stumbling during the fourth round and with the weight of expectation and history against her, Kvitova will advance to the semi-finals at Flushing Meadows.
Kvitova in three sets.
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