Serena Williams overshadows stunning US Open run with bad behavior, fined $2000

Serena Williams has had more than awe-inspiring comeback and she reached the US Open final with all straight-set victories, many of which were very decisive, and she entered the championships match as a strong favorite against Samantha Stosur, but all that admiration Williams' tennis deserves quickly vanished when she showed utter lack of control and shameful impoliteness in the beginning of the second set.

Stosur had spent a lot of time on the court en route to the final and had never won a Grand Slam title and was therefore an underdog, however, the Australian had a diverse game accompanied by good use of Williams' missed first serves and she won the first set 6-2. In the first game of the second set, down 40-30 on her serve, Williams seemed to have saved the break point with a forehand winner, but her loud "Come on" before the ball reached Stosur was perceived as a shout in the middle of a point, and chair umpire Eva Asderaki handed Stosur the point and hence the game. It triggered such an anger in Williams, that she started yelling disgraceful things at the Greek umpire. Here's the video:

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US Open 2011 trophy ceremony + Samantha Stosur's press conference

Despite all the odds and Serena Williams' legacy and intimidating form, Samantha Stosur won the US Open 2011 final in an impressive fashion, with a 6-2 6-3 score, and won her maiden Grand Slam title. The ninth-seeded Stosur was focused, classy, played wonderful tennis and was  modest in her victory.

Here's a video of the trophy ceremony. Look how cute and shy Stosur was.

Stosur praised her Serena's indisputable career achievements, ignoring her shameful argument with chair umpire.

Ever since I started playing it was a dream of mine to be here one day. I don't really know what to say. Serena, you are a fantastic player, great champion and have done wonders for our sport.

Stosur spent more than 13 hours on the court this US Open, and she is only the second Australian woman to win the tournament, however, despite everything it has to be mentioned that the fact that Serena was her opponent in the final brings extra weight to her trophy. Read more »

Samantha Stosur crowns historic run with US Open title, Serena Williams embarrasses herself

Both Samantha Stosur and Serena Williams reached the 2011 US Open final in an amazing way – Stosur played the longest US Open women's singles match in the third round against Nadia Petrova, and followed it with a match against Maria Kirilenko which featured the longest women's tiebreak at any major, then played three sets against suprise semifinalist Angelique Kerber, while her final obstacle was Serena Williams, who hadn't dropped a set at the tournament and who crushed world No.1 Caroline Wozniacki in the semis.

The favorite was Serena Williams because of all her solid wins in the lead-up to the tournament and at the tournament and because she's the owner of 13 Grand Slam titles in singles, including three US Open. However, Stosur was focused, put nerves aside, and played a smart all-round game, while Williams overshadowed her tennis with a verbal attack at chair umpire Eva Asderaki which looked really inappropriate and showed Williams' lack of class.

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Caroline Wozniacki no match for Serena Williams' power game

Caroline Wozniacki can remind us of her amazing number of titles and matches won, but that will do little to silence the ever-more-annoying yet understandable criticism of her occupying the number one ranking. In her first meeting with Serena Williams since she overtook the top ranking from the American, Wozniacki had a perfect opportunity to show that her defensive game works against everyone, but that was far from the truth. Instead, the Dane was humbled by Serena's intimidating first serve and power tennis, and will finish yet another season without a Grand Slam title.

Not long ago Serena was hospitalized for blood clots in her lungs and this US Open is only her sixth tournament after almost a year-long absence with injuries and health problems, but the 13-time Grand Slam champions needs no warmup – of those six tournaments she won two Premier-level titles and is now in the final of the US Open without dropping a set on the way. Her 11 aces in the semifinal, and 34 winners to Wozniacki's five, could only leave the Dane awe-struck.

Wozniacki is known for being strong and not letting the critics take away her pleasure in enjoying the top ranking and great win-loss record, and unfortunately, she will still need lots of good verbal defense after being blown away by Serena 6-2 6-4 in the US Open semifinals.

Serena's last obstacle to her fourth US Open trophy will be Samantha Stosur, who defeated surprise semifinalist Angelique Kerber 6-3 2-6 6-2. The 92-ranked Kerber started nervously but didn't let the semifinal finish straightforward, taking the second set from Stosur before permitting the Australian to take a 5-0 lead in the third set. The world No.10 Stosur, who had a rollercoaster ride to reach the semis, said that she realized her dream by reaching the final of the US Open, after twenty years of tennis career.

Stosur played the final of Roland Garros 2010 and lost it to Francesca Schiavone. Williams leads Stosur 4-2 in career meetings, and her most recent victory was this year in Toronto final. They met later at Cincinnati, but Stosur advanced with a walkover. (photos: © Neal Trousdale)

US Open semis: Williams vs. Wozniacki, Kerber vs. Stosur

After two days of rain troubled the US Open organizers and fans, women's quarterfinals finally took place and we have our final four: Serena Williams, Caroline Wozniacki, Angelique Kerber and Samantha Stosur. Semifinals will be played on Saturday.

Serena Williams (28) vs. Caroline Wozniacki (1)

This semifinal will be especially interesting because it is an encounter of a supposed deserved No.1 and real No.1. Wozniacki has to win this one if she wants to prove all the doubters in her game wrong, this is a perfect opportunity to do so. Since Wozniacki overtook the top position in the rankings from Serena, the two haven't clashed, but in their last and only two meetings in 2009, Williams won.

Serena is yet to lose a set at the tournament. The quarterfinal with Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova featured six breaks of serve in the beginning before Serena got on track and in the 12th game broke the Russian to take the first set. In the second set Williams lost just three points on her serve and ended the match with her sixth ace. Final score: 7-5 6-1.

Wozniacki advanced with a 6-1 7-6(5) win over Andrea Petkovic. Wozniacki let a 5-3 lead in the second set slip and ended up playing a tiebreak, in which Petkovic made five unforced errors and spoiled the comeback.

Samantha Stosur (9) vs. Angelique Kerber

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Women's US Open quarterfinals again halted by rain

Women's quarterfinals are still yet to take place, as rain washed away matches at the US Open for the second day in a row. It will be fourth successive year that the tournament is extended to the third week.

If the weather conditions improve on Thursday, Serena Williams and Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova will play their quarterfinal in Arthur Ashe Stadium, Caroline Wozniacki and Andrea Petkovic will play in Louis Armstrong Stadium, Samantha Stosur and Vera Zvonareva will on the Grandstand court, and Angelique Kerber and Flavia Pennetta will play on Court 17.

As I’m writing this, under the latest schedule and weather information US Open is still stating: "Play will resume Thursday, September 8, at 11 a.m. ET, weather permitting." (via Women Who Serve, photo: © Neal Trousdale)

Preview of US Open women's quarterfinal matches, Serena still on top

Dear readers, Florian Meier from OnlineTennisInstruction.com is back to preview the US Open quarterfinals. One of his and actually the world's biggest favorites Maria Sharapova was eliminated early, but Serena Williams is still doing strong. Let's see what Florian's predictions look like now.

US Open quarterfinals preview: Serena still the tournament favorite

We are now at the quarterfinals stage of the tournament and Serena looks almost unbeatable to me at this point (join our poll to vote who has the best chance of shaking Serena's dominance this US Open). Let’s have a closer look at the upcoming quarterfinal match-ups.

CAROLINE WOZNIACKI versus ANDREA PETKOVIC

Wozniacki has had a really good draw so far in this tournament and to me she was not all that convincing in her victory against Svetlana Kuznetsova. I am not sure how strong her form actually is. She was down 4-1 in the second set against Kuznetsova who is also not in her best form at the moment.

Andrea Petkovic looked convincing in her last two matches but she has not faced any really strong players so far in this tournament. Petkovic is also playing with an injured knee but it seems to be holding up fine so far in the tournament. Wozniacki and Petkovic are 1-1 in their career matches. Petkovic won this year on a hard court in Miami and Wozniacki won on an indoor clay court in Stuttgart.
In order to beat Wozniacki you have to be able to get by her with some firepower and be patient enough to work the point a few times. I believe Petkovic has these capabilities. Andrea is fired up like I have never seen her before and I think she is also mentally ready to beat someone like Wozniacki in a Grand Slam quarterfinal.

Assuming that Petkovic’s knee holds up, I pick her as my favorite in a very close match.


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Poll: Who can pose the greatest threat to Serena Williams this US Open?

Serena Williams is storming through the US Open draw and her confidence, stability and power make me wonder if there is any player on the Tour that could beat this Williams. Therefore, instead of doing a regular poll on who your favorites for the US Open title are, I am asking you whether you think Serena has a major threat en route to the title?

Who can pose threat to Serena Williams this US Open?

  • No one (38%, 146 Votes)
  • Caroline Wozniacki (2-0) (22%, 85 Votes)
  • Samantha Stosur (4-2) (20%, 76 Votes)
  • Vera Zvonareva (6-2) (12%, 46 Votes)
  • Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova (1-0) (5%, 18 Votes)
  • Andrea Petkovic (1-0) (2%, 9 Votes)
  • Flavia Pennetta (2-0) (1%, 8 Votes)

Total Voters: 388

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In brackets there is Serena's head-to-head record against players and as you can see she's leading each one of them. In her first tournament after a year-long absence, Eastbourne, Serena lost to Vera Zvonareva 3-6 7-6(5) 7-5 and in August she played Samantha Stosur, in the Toronto final, and won 6-4 6-2, one of her two Premier titles in five tournaments she played since her comeback in June.

In the quarterfinals of the 2011 US Open Williams plays Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, who eliminated Jelena Jankovic and Francesca Schiavone from the tournament. Williams' possible semifinal opponent is world No.1 Caroline Wozniacki. (photo: © Neal Trousdale)

Caroline gets past Kuznetsova to reach US Open quarterfinals

Top-ranked Caroline Wozniacki cruised through the first three rounds of the US Open losing only 12 games and now she’s in the quarterfinals after a 6-7(6) 7-5 6-1 victory over 2004 champion Svetlana Kuznetsova.

In the first set both players had their serves broken three times and even though Wozniacki was the first to lead in the tiebreaker, 5-2, Kuznetsova came out of the opening set victorious, despite her 31 unforced errors. In the second set Wozniacki came back from a 4-1 deficit to take the match to the third set, through which she cruised.

Kuznetsova actually finished the match with a total of 78 unforced errors to Wozniacki's 26. Of course, Kuznetsova hit more winners, 40 to her opponent's 20.

Wozniacki’s opponent in the quarterfinals will be tenth seed Andrea Petkovic who defeated Carla Suarez Navarro 6-1 6-4 in the fourth round.

Additional info: Wozniacki, as well as Maria Sharapova, are the first players to qualify for the TEB-BNP Paribas WTA Championships, to take place in Istanbul, Turkey. It will be Wozniacki's third straight year to play the elite year-end Championships, while Sharapova hadn't qualified since 2007. (photo: © Neal Trousdale)

Serena Williams remains unchallenged at the US Open

Besides the second set against Victoria Azarenka in the third round, Serena Williams has faced no real challenge at the US Open, including her today's encounter with Ana Ivanovic – the former world No.1 was just another unmemorable target on Williams' surge through the tournament.

The 28th-seeded Williams is already in the quarterfinals, having dropped her serve only two times on the way. Knowing the state of Williams' and Ivanovic's tennis, Ivanovic can unfortunately be happy that she was one of the two players who broke the American's serve this US Open and that she won seven games during the fourth round match, 6-3 6-4.

Next for Williams will be first time US Open quarterfinalist Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova who defeated seed No.7 Francesca Schiavone 5-7 6-3 6-4 in two hours and 41 minutes after they committed a combined 21 double faults and dropped serve 16 times. (photo: © Neal Trousdale)


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