Mike’s on for Supah Bowl contest
MELBOURNE, Australia — Venus Williams has reached her 21st Grand Slam semifinal, her first at the Australian Open in 14 years.
CoCo Vandeweghe advanced to her first major semifinal, anywhere, beating Grand Slam winners in back-to-back rounds. The one sure outcome will be an American in the final at Melbourne Park.
The 36-year-old Williams beat No. 24-seeded Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 6-4, 7-6 (3) on Tuesday, becoming the oldest player to reach the Australian Open women’s semifinals in the Open era.
Vandeweghe dictated play against French Open champion Garbine Muguruza in a 6-4, 6-0 quarterfinal victory.
The No. 35-ranked Vandeweghe upset topranked Angelique Kerber, who won the Australian and U.S. titles last year, in the fourth round. She followed it up with another commanding victory.
Vandeweghe saved the only break point she faced in the first set with an ace, and only conceded 10 points in the 28-minute second set. She had 31 winners, including 14 on her powerful forehand side.
“Once I got rolling in the second, it was like a freight train, you couldn’t stop it,” she said.
Williams has advanced through the tournament without dropping a set, and isn’t ready to stop there.
“It’s wonderful to start the year out with this appearance,” said Williams, who hadn’t reached the semifinals in Australia since 2003, the year she lost the final to her sister, Serena. “I want to go further. I’m not happy just with this. But I’m so happy to be in the position to like go further.”
Williams said the quarterfinal results were a “great win for the U.S.”
“I’m sure she’s going to want to be in her first final,” Williams said. “I’m going to want to be in only my second final here. So it’s going to be a wellcontested match.”
Williams dropped four service games against Pavlyuchenkova, but she responded each time by breaking back. In the tiebreaker, she trailed 3-1 before winning the last six points — clinching the match on Pavlyuchenkova’s double-fault. MONGO Nation need not worry — Mike Francesa will be asking his callers “What kind of fan are you” for one more year.
After WFAN’s decades-old Super Bowl contest had trouble finding a sponsor, Bose stepped up Monday and saved the event, which will give away one trip to Super Bowl LI and will begin Tuesday or Wednesday, according to Newsday.
Station executive Mark Chernoff previously told the Long Island daily that there was no contest planned unless the possibility of a sponsorship arose.
The contest has been a staple of Francesa’s show and dates back to his days with Chris “Mad Dog” Russo. During their days together on the YES Network, Russo dressed in colonial garb and played the character of “The Marquis.” Francesa has continued the contest on his own in the years following their split and the contest has provided some of the classic moments in the show’s history.
Fans of Francesa quickly tried to save the contest following the initially grim news of its future.
A GoFundMe account was started with the goal of $25,000 to finance the event in what Francesa says is his final Super Bowl on WFAN. — Bernie Augustine EPA