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Venus Williams vs Sloane Stephens: US Open women's semi-final live scores, blog

7th September, 2017
Start time: 9am (AEST)
Court: Arthur Ashe Stadium
TV: Live, ESPN
Online: Live, Foxtel app or WatchESPN
Betting: Williams $1.61, Stephens $2.30
Overall record: Played 1, Stephens 1, Williams 0
Last meeting: 2015, French Open 1st round - Stephens defeat Williams 7-5, 6-1

Venus Williams last 10 matches: won 8, lost 2
Sloane Stephens last 10 matches: won 9, lost 1
Venus Williams was involved in an infamous tennis blow-up. (Kyodo)
Expert
7th September, 2017
196
1014 Reads

The first of two all-American women’s semi-finals at the US Open sees veteran Venus Williams, shooting for a place in a second grand slam final this year, taking on the unseeded comeback queen Sloane Stephens. Join The Roar for live scores and coverage from 9am (AEST).

Stephens is one of the stories of this year’s US Open. After reaching a highest career ranking of 11 in 2015, she picked up a stress fracture in her foot this time last year. She then spent nearly a year out of action, only returning at Wimbledon this year.

She lost in the first round at Wimbledon, but gathered form in Cincinnati and Toronto, completing the turnaround with a semifinal run at the US Open, and if she can overcome Williams, an unprecedented spot in the final for the unseeded player.

Stephens made the 2013 Australian Open semi-finals but hasn’t looked like going this deep in a grand slam since. Her form in New York has been impressive, to say the least with her power game allowing her to go past opponents with relative ease.

In fact, to this point in the tournament, she has only lost three sets, and until the last round hadn’t been pushed in a deciding set.

Wins over Roberta Vinci, Dominika Cibulkova (three sets), Ashleigh Barty and Julia Goerges under the belt, she took on the seeded Anastasija Sevastova in the quarter-finals. It was a commanding performance from Stephens though, taking the first set and then bouncing back to dominate a third set tiebreaker 7-4.

She will need to be at her best if she is going to contend with Venus Williams though. The veteran is having a wonderful year, given her age. She made the final of the Australian Open to kick things off, and is looking to go one step better at Flushing Meadows.

Like Stephens, she has only lost three sets for the tournament and had to battle through a third set tiebreaker in the quarter-finals, getting past Petra Kvitova 7-2. Her dominance of that tiebreaker was down to her serve putting the pressure on, and aggression when attacking second serves.

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Williams has always had the ability to attack second serves, and for that reason Stephens must fire a high percentage of first serves in. Before Kvitova, Williams had gone past Viktoria Kuzmova, Oceane Dodin, Maria Sakkari and the seeded Carla Suarez Navarro in three sets, winning the final 6-1.

It’s a tale of two players who are in undoubted good form, but Stephens has won their only previous meeting, going past Williams at the French Open in 2015.

Prediction
Williams has all the experience here, and I expect her to go through to the final. It’ll be hard-fought though.

Williams in three sets.

Be sure to join The Roar for live coverage of this semi-final from 9am (AEST) and don’t forget to add a comment below.

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