Venus ousted as Stephens reaches final

NEW YORK — Two points from defeat against Venus Williams at the U.S. Open, Sloane Stephens summoned her best strokes when she needed them the most to reach a Grand Slam final for the first time.

Stephens was so close to defeat before taking the last three games of a back-andforth semifinal between two Americans at Flushing Meadows, edging seven-time major champion Williams 6-1, 0-6, 7-5 on Thursday night.

A t 3 7, W i l l i a m s w a s attempting to become the oldest woman to win a Grand Slam title in the Open era, which dates to 1968. She was trying to reach her third major final of this season, something she last did 15 years ago. Here’s how long and successful her career has been: Williams’ first title match in New York came in her U.S. Open debut in 1997. Stephens was 4 at the time.

And Williams was quite near to beating Stephens. With Williams ahead 5-4, and Stephens serving at 30-all, they engaged in a 25-stroke point — Stephens conjured up a backhand passing winner down the line, then wheeled and pumped her fists.

At 5-all, Stephens broke with the help of a lob winner that drew a standing ovation from the crowd, and a fullsprint get of a short ball that she turned into a “How did she do that?” winner at an impossible angle to love 30.

Soon enough, Stephens was serving out the biggest win of her career — and of her impressive comeback from surgery on her left foot in late January. She returned to the tour at Wimbledon in July, losing in the first round, and lost her next match, too. Her ra nki ng, which reached a high of No. 11 in 2013, dropped out of the top 900.

But since then, Stephens has won 14 of 16 matches.

On Saturday, Stephens will meet No. 15 Madison Keys, who beat No. 20 CoCo Vandeweghe 6-1, 6-2, in the first all-American U.S. Open women’s final since 2002, when Williams and her sister Serena faced each other.

Keys won easily despite being treated for an upper right leg injury as she also reached her first major final.

Stephens showed signs of jitters during the warmup, dumping her first two practice forehands into the net. Then she double -faulted on the second point of the match.

Yet it was the far more experienced Williams who was far shakier in the early going, ceding the initial break to trail 3-1 thanks to four consecutive shots that went awry. The 24-minute opening set was not much of a contest, thanks mainly to miscue after miscue by Williams — she had 17 unforced errors by the time it was over, 12 more than Stephens.