Serena Williams US Open 2013
US Open 2013 just looks too easy for Serena Williams. She is now on the semifinals, paving the way to her fifth title from the home Grand Slam. Whatever coach Patrick Mouratoglu is doing, it’s totally working with Serena, as she has turned to a real tennis demolisher.
The quarterfinal “battle” took Miss Williams barely over 50 minutes. She handled the first set for only 19 minutes and didn’t drop a single game in the whole match against poor Carla Suarez Navarro. Up to the semis, Serena gave her opponents the mere 13 games altogether.
There’s no doubt that Serena Williams is having another youth, but benefiting from the experience she got over the years, she is unstoppable.
For Serena’s next “victim” – Na Li – this will be the first appearance on the semis at Flushing Meadows. The Chinese looks in a good shape, losing only one set so far on US Open, but still her game doesn’t look powerful enough to overcome Williams at her current state of play. Na Li served well in the quarterfinals and would at least try and tease Serena to lose a set. If it’s the second set, timing might help Li, so she is in the better mental condition before the decisive one.
Victoria Azarenka US Open 2013
Still, Serena looks like the undisputable winner out of this one, and the only real competition she might have, would be on the final. If Vika reaches that one.
The other semifinal does look like a one-way street as well. Viktoria Azarenka had a nightmare in the 4th round, but is surely going to try and shake it off, before the meet with the most surprising semifinalist this year – Flavia Pennetta.
Pennetta is clearly the proof that Italian tennis players get better in time. After Schiavone and Errani, now 31-years old Pennetta is on her first Grand Slam semifinal. Before US Open 2013 she was 81st in the WTA Ranks and the semifinal spot now will take her close to the Top 30. Flavia is also one of the very few – only five – players to reach semifinal on US Open when unseeded in first place.
And this semifinal, though, also can’t offer much surprise on paper. As much as Serene Williams is the clear favorite in the first one, Viktoria Azarenka is in the second. Vika was on her worst against Ana Ivanovic in Round 4, dropped a set against Alize Cornet, but then seemed very fine in her last match against Daniela Hantuchova. Azarenka tasted the final in 2012, so making it there again looks like her minimum goal.
That makes our verdict very easy, just like Serena Williams make it look – Williams – Azarenka to decide the next/old US Open champion.