There was no repeat this year of Roberta Vinci’s 2015 extraordinary run to the final. The Italian n.8 seed was defeated in straight set on Tuesday morning on Arthur Ashe Stadium by n.2 Angelique Kerber, who had beaten her in two of their previous four meetings and who, by reaching the semifinals, is keeping intact her chances to clinch the n.1 spot in the WTA ranking at the end of this tournament.
Started under a low and cloudy New York sky (the roof had been closed most of the morning but it was decided to play the match outdoor just a few minutes before the noon start) the first set saw Vinci go up a break three times, including one on 5-4 when she served for the first set. She got to 30-30 and then lost a 16-shot rally with a forehand sailing long before missing a slice backhand on break point to concede the 5-5. That was the beginning of a 9-game streak for Kerber, who after closing the first set by 7-5 in 54 minutes with a break to love, breezed through the second set in just 24 minutes dropping just 10 points, half of which when the match was already secured.
Vinci had been able to offer strenuous resistance in the first set despite playing with a tendinitis at her left Achilles tendon, and injury she has been fighting since the Rio Olympics. During this tournament she has not trained for more than 45 minutes at a time, and the day before this quarterfinal she was only able to play for 15 minutes without barely running at all. However, her slice backhand directed to Kerber’s forehand was enough to create enough hesitation in the German to break her three times. However, every time she broke, she immediately conceded the break back on the following game, never managing to create some space between herself and her opponent. A very unusual end of the set saw Vinci being called a foot-fault on second serve on the first set point at 5-6 0-40. “I was very angry at myself – said Vinci to the Italian press after the match – because that is totally my fault. The serve is a shot that depends entirely on you, and I did not pay enough attention to the position of my feet. If they called a foot-fault, I must have done it”.
Vinci will now drop seven places in the WTA ranking on Monday, not having been able to defend the final from 2015. However, given her precarious health conditions at the beginning of the tournament, she said it was “almost a miracle” to have reached the quarterfinals. At the end of the 2015 season, Vinci hinted that this would be her last year on tour, but after the end of her US Open campaign she refused to answer questions regarding her future, saying that no decision has been taken yet. “I will get to the end of the season – said the Italian – and see what my heart tells me”.
Kerber is now just two matches away from becoming world no.1 and she remember her first Grand Slam quarterfinal five years ago in 2011 when she defeated Flavia Pennetta. “Yeah, I think [my game and my mindset have] changed a little bit. For me, I’m going out on Arthur Ashe, on the stadium, and playing against top player, as well. I have I think right now more confidence to going out there. I’m not thinking about quarters, semis, or whatever. I’m just going there to playing a good match and to win the match. I know that I can beat everybody, and this is what gives me also a lot of confidence and motivation for going out there and playing with a lot of emotion”.
She will face Wozniacki or Sevastova in the semifinals to advance to her third Grand Slam final of the year, after winning at the Australian Open in January and losing to Serena Williams in Wimbledon last July.
