Rising star
CoCo Vandeweghe, right, toppled No. 1 seed to reach all-American U.S. Open semifinals
The U.S. Open women’s semifinals will be an all-American extravaganza after Madison Keys became the last player to reach the final four of this tournament.
Keys, seeded 15th and playing in her first U.S. Open quarterfinal, had little trouble bypassing
418th-ranked Estonian qualifier Kaia Kanepi 6-3, 6-3 on Wednesday night.
Keys will play 20th-seeded CoCo Vandeweghe in the semifinals. Vandeweghe earned her appointment in the semifinals with a 7-6
(7-4), 6-3 victory against world No. 1 Karolina Pliskova of the Czech Republic.
Keys holds a 2-0 record against Vandeweghe, beating her in the Stanford final and in Cincinnati in the last few weeks.
The other semifinal will feature ninth-seeded Venus Williams against Sloane Stephens. They earned their semifinal berths Tuesday. Williams ousted
13th-seeded Petra Kvitova of the Czech Republic and Stephens upset 16th-seeded Anastasija Sevastova of Latvia.
“It’s amazing. It’s wonderful for American tennis. It’s wonderful for our youngsters coming up,” said U.S. Fed Cup captain Kathy Rinaldi, who also serves as lead national coach for the U.S. women. “These four ladies in the semifinals are not only tremendous athletes, they’re tre--
mendous young ladies and role models. To see them blossom into the tremendous tennis players that we knew they always were and their dreams come true is rewarding.”
Heading to her match, Keys said she felt the pressure of rounding out the final four field.
“I was real nervous today,” Keys said of having the responsibility of making this year’s semifinals a quartet of Americans. “The car ride over I was definitely feeling it.”
The last time all four U.S. Open women’s semifinalists were American was in 1981. The lineup was Tracy Austin, who would go on to win the title; Chris Evert; Martina Navratilova; and Barbara Potter.
“Venus (Williams) last night said it very well that the younger ones were looking at Lindsay (Davenport), Jennifer (Capriati) and Serena (Williams) and Venus,” Vandeweghe said after her victory. “I think that still holds. We wanted to be those same players in a later generation.
“For myself, it’s really nice to have an all-American semi on one side, because for sure there is going to be an American in the final. But I think it would be even more exciting for you guys (the media) to write about if there are two all-American semis.”
No matter who moves on to the final, the USA will have a U.S. Open women’s champion.
The last time the U.S. Open boasted two native daughters in
the final was in 2002 when Serena Williams defeated Venus Williams.
The last all-American Grand Slam final took place this year when Serena Williams bypassed Venus Williams in the Australian Open final for her 23rd Grand Slam trophy.
In the Open era of tennis, there have been five occasions when a Grand Slam showcased all-American semifinals.
Besides the semifinals here in
1981, the other times it happened were: 1985 Wimbledon (Evert, Zina Garrison, Navratilova, Rinaldi), 1983 Australian Open (Zina Garrison, Kathy Jordan, Navratilova, Pam Shriver), 1982 Australian Open (Evert, Andrea Jaeger, Navratilova, Shriver) and
1979 U.S. Open (Austin, Evert, Billie Jean King, Navratilova).
Keys had two left wrist surgeries after her final event of the
2016 season — the year-end WTA Championships in Singapore — and didn’t play this year until the Indian Wells tournament in early March. The last surgery she had took place between the French Open and Wimbledon, where she reached the second round in both tournaments.
“This means the world to me,” Keys told the crowd. “If someone told me this is where I would be right before Wimbledon, I wouldn’t believe you. And now we’re going to have four Americans in the semifinals, and that’s awesome.”
Vandeweghe is into her second career Grand Slam tournament semifinal, having reached her first in this year’s Australian Open. Before this year, Vandeweghe’s best showing in the U.S. Open was four second-round finishes.
The Californian, who spent her early years in the New York suburb of Locust Valley on Long Island, credits her leadership performance in Fed Cup this season as a confidence builder. The USA has reached the Fed Cup final for the first time since 2010 and will be looking to extend its record of 17 Fed Cup titles against Belarus, in Minsk, in November.
“That’s a very important role that I have wanted for a long time,” Vandeweghe said of Fed Cup. “I worked hard to be in that position. I sacrificed a lot of my schedule to be available for Fed Cup and to be the leader of that team, along with Bethanie (Mattek-Sands).”
After winning her quarterfinal, Vandeweghe dropped to her knees, then raced over to highfive people in her guest box, where her new coach, 1987 Wimbledon champ Pat Cash, was sitting.
When asked what Cash has improved in her tennis, Vandeweghe said, “I think the biggest thing is channeling my intensity and tenacity out onto the court and putting it into a singular focus.
“You will have to ask him how he’s been able to do that,” she added. “I don’t really know. ”