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)

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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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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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)

New York and fashion go hand in hand, and tennis outfits are no exception, especially when we have a high-profile event such as the US Open. So let's see what the manufacturers of tennis clothes prepared for our WTA stars and there is no better way to start than with American Bethanie Mattek Sands who integrated patriotism in her attire.

Don't you love the American-flag tube socks and the accompanying red shoes? Bethanie looks awesome in her Under Armour outfit with accessories that perfectly match the US Open occasion.

Bethanie is known for her experiments with fashion and her most recent took place before and during Wimbledon, when she incorporated tennis balls in her player party and on-court outfits.

Venus Williams shocked with her EleVen US Open dress as much as she did with her subsequent abrupt withdrawal due to a long-undiagnosed syndrome.

Top seed Caroline Wozniacki and Stella McCartney absolutely failed to inspire with a white dress much more suitable for Wimbledon. Why not use colors for the US Open when you can?

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