Resurgence is long time coming

Astar-spangled week has become a starspangled sweep, leaving us in Queens with a full house of Americans in the U.S. Open semifinals. The recent history of disappointment on the ladies’ side became history on Wednesday when first CoCo Vandeweghe, and next Madison Keys joined Sloane Stephens and Venus Williams in the first All-American U.S. Open final four since 1981, when champion Tracy Austin, runner-up Martina Navratilova, Chris Evert and Barbara Potter were the last women standing. And this: For the first time in the Open era that commenced in 1968, for the first time since 1958 when the tournament was known as the U.S. National Championships, four American-born ladies have advanced to the semis. Then it was trailblazing pioneer and champion Althea Gibson, finalist Darlene Hard, Jeanne Arth and Beverly Becker Fleitz. Now it is Venus, Sloane, Madison and CoCo, names for a new generation. Two will emerge from Thursday’s matches in which Williams will face Stephens before Vandeweghe squares off against Keys.

For more than a decade, since the decline and ultimate demise of Lindsay Davenport and Jennifer Capriati, life at the top of U.S. women’s tennis has been the exclusive domain of the remarkable Williams Sisters. There hadn’t been an American U.S. Open semifinalist without the Williams surname since both Davenport and Capriati advanced that far in 2004.

And it isn’t maligning American tennis to suggest that — other than for the Williamses — that there had been a vacuum at the top. It’s like Harry Truman once said: “I never did give anybody hell. I just told the truth and they thought it was hell.”

Well, American tennis has become heavenly over this fortnight. Stephens, 24, her career derailed by injuries, over fourth-seed Elina Svitolina in one quarter. Williams over Kvitova in another. Vandeweghe over top-seed Karolina Pliskova in a straight-set shocker on Wednesday afternoon before Keys routinely dispatched qualifier Kaia Kanepi 6-3, 6-3, Thursday night.

“Oh my God, it feels so good,” Keys said. “We have so many Americans to talk about in the last days of the U.S. Open. I can’t tell you how many times I have sat in this chair and had to hear, you know, how horrible tennis is in America.

“So this feels really good. There are lots of young upand-comers. I think there is a lot of good American tennis to come.”

Is it irony or is it providence that the Sisterhood has flourished this fortnight in absence of Serena, who gave birth to a daughter on Sept. 1? Serena cast such a huge shadow over this event that even her semifinal upsets in both 2015 — when she was aiming for a calendar Grand Slam — and 2016 upstaged the women’s finals that followed and were won by Flavia Pennetta and Angelique Kerber.

“I think Venus and Serena [have led] the way and [been] tremendous role models, not just for American players but tennis in general,” said Kathy Rinaldi, captain of the U.S. Fed Cup team that will attempt to win its first title since 2000 against Belarus in Belarus in November. “They’ve led the way

Larry Brooks

and it is really exciting to see.”

Venus, 37, is vying for a spot in her second Grand Slam final of the year, having lost at Wimbledon. She is enjoying a renaissance in the absence of her younger sister, her quarterfinal three-set victory in a tiebreak over Petra Kvitova on Wednesday is as popular a triumph as has taken place on Ashe in this event.

She has won seven Grand Slam titles, her last in 2008 at Wimbledon. Her two U.S. Open championships were attained in 2000 and 2001. Now this wholly admirable woman is back. Or rather, she is still here.

“The younger ones were looking at Lindsay, Jennifer, and Serena and Venus,” Vandeweghe said. “I think that still holds. We wanted to be those same players in a later generation.”

Now they have a chance to become that. The future has become the present for Vandeweghe, 25, and for Stephens, 24, and for Keys, 22.

“These ladies have put in a lot of work and a lot of time,” said Rinaldi. “It’s a process. Everybody has their own path. The culture has just been so great amongst the players, as far as the camaraderie and the support of each other. The healthy competitiveness of pushing each other.”

All at once, they have arrived. The Yankees are not coming. They are here. And they are planting the flag into the hard court of this starspangled U.S. Open.