If you were a Serena Williams fan, it all looked so reassuring again on Thursday night as she pounded first serves and ripped winners on the run against an overwhelmed younger opponent to reach her 10th United States Open final in style.
But the tricky part for Williams in this latest and perhaps most fascinating phase of her long, layer-cake of a career has not been bringing the thunder in matches like Thursday’s 6-3, 6-1 semifinal defeat of Elina Svitolina.
It has been Saturdays with Grand Slam titles on the line.
Williams was once virtually rock solid with major hardware at stake, but lately she has lost her ability to close.
She won 21 of her first 25 Grand Slam finals but has lost five of her last seven and has lost all three she has played since returning to the game last year after the birth of a daughter, Olympia, in September 2017.
Nor has she won any other tennis title since her return.
“There’s so many different emotions in finals,” Williams said softly on Thursday night. “It just brings out so many highs and lows, nerves and expectations — it’s a lot.”
That has never been clearer for her than in the last two seasons. But despite injuries, other frustrations and the rise of a new generation of talented players, Williams, with her 38th birthday coming later this month, continues to generate precious opportunities to match Margaret Court’s record of 24 Grand Slam singles titles.
She needs just one more championship for the tie, and the next opportunity will come against a member of that new wave:ianca Andreescu, a 19-year-old Canadianwho has made a meteoric rise into the elite of women’s tennis and who rallied in both sets against Belinda Bencic for a 7-6 (3), 7-5 victory in Thursday’s second semifinal.
“Obviously there’s a lot of things that I’ve learned in the past,” Williams said, “but I just have to go out there and, above all, most of all, just stay relaxed.”
That is easier said than done, as Williams proved in her straight-set defeatsgainst Angelique Kerber in last year’s Wimbledoninal,gainst Naomi Osaka in last year’s tumultuous U.S. Open finalnd againstimona Halep in this year’s Wimbledon final, where Halep played like a dream to win, 6-2, 6-2, but also got plenty of help from an edgy, off-target Williams.
“That is going to be the big question for Serena this time, whether she can come out relaxed enough to play her best tennis,” said Chanda Rubin, an analyst and a former top 10 player. “There’s always so much at stake in a final where she’s searching for this record.”
Her next test: the 15th-seeded Andreescu, who has a precociously complete game and has won significant hardcourt titles this year in Indian Wells, Calif., and in her native Toronto. There she was supposed to play the final of the Rogers Cup last month against Williams,ho retired with a back injury
It has been a phenomenal rise for a player making her first appearance at this tournament. Andreescu lost in the first round of qualifying for the U.S. Open last year.
“It’s just surreal,” Andreescu said. “I really don’t know what to say. It’s a dream come true playing against Serena in the finals of the U.S. Open. I don’t know what to say. It’s crazy. It’s crazy.”
The key for Williams will be to manage the moment.
Williams already has tied one record held by a great of the game this week in New York. The victory against Svitolina was her 101st in singles at the U.S. Open, equaling Chris Evert’s mark.
“It’s just impressive I guess,” Williams said in her on-court interview. “I don’t think about it. I just come out here and do what I can.”
But Williams has no doubt thought often about No. 24. Breaking Court’s record was her clearest goal when she returned to the tour, and her team has tried a variety of approaches, from talking about the target number openly to avoiding it altogether.
“I think 24 is a big deal; I think it matters,” Rubin said. “Because Serena should be considered the greatest of all time, and this would kind of shut the door in my mind, certainly if she can get to 25 it would close the door to the conversation. And she is competitive and intense enough that all that would matter to her. That being said, she doesn’t have to win another match or another tournament to have her place in history.”
It was easy to marvel some more on Thursday night as Williams projected the same sort of intensity and hunger in Arthur Ashe Stadiumhat she did 20 years ago, when she won her first Grand Slam singles titlein the same stadium.
On paper, you could argue she was an underdog: At No. 8, Williams was seeded below Svitolina, No. 5, who was a Wimbledon semifinalist this year and who has claimed a prestigious title much more recently than Williams, winning the WTA Finals, the season-ending tour championship, last year in Singapore.
Svitolina might not be a Grand Slam champion, but she is a counterpuncher with excellent foot speed who has worn down plenty of strong opponents in recent seasons, includingilliams in the round of 16t the 2016 Summer Olympics.
For at least a little while on Thursday, it seemed as if this semifinal also would turn into a match of attrition. The first two games required 16 minutes as Williams saved three break points on her way to winning the opening game and then worked her way through a six-deuce game to break Svitolina’s serve.
But the rest of the match was much more of a sprint than a marathon as Williams cracked winners and big serves and feasted on Svitolina’s second serve.
“I know how she can play,” Williams said of Svitolina. “I just wanted to not get off to a slow start and just try to hang in there.”
Mission accomplished in just one hour and 10 minutes as Williams saved all six break points she faced and finished with 34 winners to 20 unforced errors.
By the end of this rout, Svitolina looked dazed and a bit confused. Perhaps that was because Williams did not just blast away: She did a fine job of generating sharp angles with her groundstrokes from the start, preventing Svitolina from camping out behind the baseline and settling into a rhythm.
Williams also changed the pace on occasion, hitting drop shots and even, in a very rare move for her, deploying serve-and-volley tactics to save a break point in the first set.
“Don’t expect that again,” she said later, looking sheepish. “What am I doing at the net? Let me get back to the baseline!”
As the match progressed, Williams, confident in her conditioning and quick to the mark, was even beating Svitolina at her own game, winning extended baseline rallies.
But the shot that set the tone for Williams was the same stroke that has for more than 20 years: her first serve. She hit it particularly well against Svitolina, and her average first-serve speed of 108.3 miles per hour was by far her highest of the tournament so far.
“I think she knows what she has to do,” Svitolina said. “She has unbelievable strength. There’s lots of power behind her shots all the time. That’s what makes her an unbelievable, legendary tennis player. On the important moments, she steps up, always steps up, always brings her best game.”
Svitolina was understandably impressed, but the truth — as Williams knows — is that she has not produced her best tennis when she needed it most in the last two seasons.
Now, for the fourth time in just 14 months, she has another chance — on the court where she has won six singles titles, the same court where she lost her composure against Osaka a year ago.
“Is this the best opportunity?” Williams said. “I don’t know. I literally haven’t thought about it this tournament. I’ve been way too chill.”
Time to take her temperature again on a Saturday, with a Grand Slam trophy glittering nearby.