As starts keep falling in the sweltering New York heat, Serena Williams reaffirmed her intention to continue the quest for her 24th Major title by defeating the hard-hitting Czech Karolina Pliskova in straight set to record her first Top-10 win of the year. In her 100th match on Arthur Ashe Stadium, Serena performed an impressive comeback in the first set after a tentative start and raised her level to showcase probably her highest level so far in the tournament and her best game since returning to the sport after her pregnancy.
A shaky Serena Williams racking up 19 unforced error in the first seven games gave an early lead to Pliskova, who started serving very sharp getting an early break for a 3-1 lead, missing two chances for a double-break 4-1 advantage. The high-speed rallies with balls whistling just inches from the net made for a very entertaining show to the 23,000 spectators of the Arthur Ashe stadium, but also helped Williams find her range on groundstrokes and limit the unforced error in the second part of the set. “Her opponent can’t hurt her, she has to realize she has time to play” said her coach Patrick Mouratoglou to the ESPN during the first set as the match was turning: Serena won eight games in a row climbing back from 2-4 to win the set 6-4 and sailing away to 4-0 in the second. In doing so she broke her opponent four times in a row, the second of which coming back from 40-0 taking advantage of Pliskova’s falling first serve percentage and stepping into the court to angle second serve returns.
A disgruntled Pliskova slammed her racket on her bench on changeover to let out her mounting frustration for not managing to keep Serena at bay with her serve. But an unexpected twist of the plot saw Williams drop her serve with a double fault at 4-0 and go down 0-40 at 4-2 with three chances for Pliskova to get back on serve. However, a very match-sharp Serena canceled four break points in that game (three of which with an ace) to maintain the lead at 5-2. Two games later the American wrapped up her match holding the serve at love with three more aces (13 for her in total) and booked her spot in the US Open semifinals for the 12th time in her career where she will face Anastasija Sevastova in an unprecedented match-up in pro tennis.
