While we’re awaiting the US Open women’s final between Serena Williams and Jelena Jankovic, let’s give some time to the player missed most at this tournament – Maria Sharapova. You know Maria had to withdraw because of a persistent shoulder injury, and she might even be missing the rest of the season, but that doesn’t mean the Russian fashionista hadn’t prepared some cool outfits for the final Grand Slam of the year. Here are the Nike dresses Sharapova would have been wearing hadn’t she skipped the event. The blue dress was supposed to be worn by day, while the black one was made for the night. (via Great Tennis Photos)

Two-time US Open champion Serena Williams coped better than Dinara Safina with the gusty winds at Flushing Meadows and reached the final of the tournament beating the Russian 6-3 6-2.

The fourth-seeded Williams survived having her serve broken in the first game to break Safina, the sixth seed, a total of five times in the match affected by bad weather. Williams made 21 unforced errors, while Safina, who was frustrated by the wind, committed 41.

Williams was playing her first US Open semifinal since winning the tournament in 2002.
In the final, which will decide who takes the number one ranking, she will face second seed Jelena Jankovic. The Serb advanced earlier in the day by beating Elena Dementieva.

Williams and Jankovic are tied at 3-3 in their meetings. The last time they played each other was in Miami, it was the final too, and Serena won 6-1 5-7 6-3.

The US Open final is scheduled for Saturday but bad weather is forecast, so we can expect the match to be postponed. (photo: Getty Images)

Second seed Jelena Jankovic reached the first Grand Slam final of her career with a straight set victory over fifth seed Elena Dementieva at the 2008 US Open. Final score: 6-4 6-4.

Dementieva broke Jankovic’s serve at the very beginning of their semifinal showdown. However, since Dementieva’s 4-2 lead, Jankovic took four consecutive games to take the first set. Out of the first six games of the second set, four were breaks. After that, the players held their serve, but Jankovic broke Dementieva in the tenth game of the set, scoring on her second match point.

This US Open semifinal was Jankovic’s fifth in a Grand Slam, and the Serb managed to go one step further for the first time. It’s interesting to point out that Jankovic’s first semifinal of a Grand Slam was at this same tournament in 2006.

Judging by how many splits JJ made during today’s match, she’s healthy and ready for her next opponent.

Serena Williams and Dinara Safina will face each other in the other semifinal. (photo: Getty Images)

I found one really cool set of photos of sisters Venus and Serena Williams practicing before their epic match at the US Open. The photos are chronologically ordered and each one is commented. In this post I'm showing you just some of them.

I find it especially nice that the tennis stars were both accompanied by their partners –  Venus by her fiancé, golfer Hank Kuehne, and Serena by her often-denied boyfriend, rapper Common. Read more »

Serena Williams won the 17th meeting with her sister Venus, an epic match with a final result 7-6 (8-6) 7-6 (9-7), and moved into the semifinals of the US Open where she’ll face Dinara Safina.

Serena, the fourth seed, suffered an early break of serve, but when serving for the set at 5-3 and 40-15 Venus handed the momentum to Serena. Having already seen two set points go begging in the first set, seventh-seeded Venus wasted a further eight in the second set tie-break.

Serena, who now has 9-8 record against Venus (6-5 in Grand Slams) is looking for her 12th Grand Slam final.

In the other semifinal, Jelena Jankovic and Elena Dementieva will face each other. (source: BBC)