Muammar Al Khadafi

The US open women's semifinal match with world number one ranked player Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark was supposed to be a tough test for Serena Williams, who hasn't dropped a set in this tournament. 

But when Serena is on a roll like she is in this tournament, it doesn't matter who is the opponent is or what her seeding is as she steamrolled the top seeded Wozniacki in straight sets 6-2, 6-4 to move to just a win away from her 14th Grand Slam title and her first US Open title since 2008.

"I'm still No. 1 in the ranking and still No. 1 in the race," Wozniacki said. "No one can take that away from me right now. Serena played great today. She's a great champion and I wish her well."

Yeah, but how long are you going to hold that Number one ranking Caroline, especially since you can't seem to win a Grand Slam tournament in the process?  

28th seeded Little Sis will face number 9 seeded Samantha Stosur of Australia in a few hours.   She beat Angelique Kerber of Germany 6-3,2-6, 6-2 to reach her second Grand Slam tournament final.   Stosur also has the not so fond memory of being beaten 6-4, 6-2 by Serena in straight sets last month in the Toronto Cup final.

Serena is not only 18-0 on hardcourts this year, she has a 4-2 series lead in matches played against Stosur.   

Should be fun to watch.   Go Serena!

Serena Williams is on a roll right now and has yet to drop a set in this 2011 US Open tournament.  . 

Even when she got off to a slow start against number 17 seed Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova of Russia and gave away three games, she still took only 79 minutes to win in straight sets 7-5, 6-1 to power into the semifinals for the first time since 2009.

But awaiting her is the current world number one ranked player and tournament number one seeded  Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark   She won her quarterfinal match against tenth seeded Andrea Petkovic of Germany 6-1, 7-6 (7-5).

Wozniacki is about to find out if she's worthy of that ranking in a few hours.


The other semifinal will pit Number nine seed Samantha Stosur of Australia, who Serena recently beat in a tournament in Toronto and unseeded Angelique Kerber of Germany.

Go Serena Go!

Little Sis is on a mission to take her first US Open title since 2008.   The 28th seeded Serena moved on to the quarterfinals after a 6-3, 6-4 straight set victory over 16th seeded Ana Ivanovic of Serbia.in a windy Arthur Ashe Stadium with Spike Lee in attendance.    
The wind wreaked havoc on ball tosses for both players, but Serena eventually got control of the match and closed it out with four straight serves clocked between 99-111 mph.

It's the ninth time she's reached the US open quarterfinals.  Serena hasn't dropped a set in this tournament and is now 16-0 on hardcourts (including the titles at Stanford and Toronto) despite the limited mount of playing time she's had this year due to injuries and illness.

She'll face 17th seeded Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova of Russia in the quarters and should she continue her winning ways will face the Petkovic-Wozniacki winner in the semis. 

Y'all know I'm keeping up with my fave tennis playing siblings and I play the game myself when I can find an opponent. 

While flipping through the TV channels yesterday I stumbled across a men's US Open match that grabbed my attention because of the young tennis playing brother in it.

He is 22 year old Donald Young, Jr.  He was born in Chicago to tennis playing parents and was considered a tennis prodigy.  The left handed Young was at one time the number one ranked junior player in the world but has had an up and down career since turning pro in 2004.   

I got to watch him finish off the third set in front of a raucous partisan crowd as he beat 24th seeded Argentinan Juan Ignacio Chela in straight sets 7-5, 6-4, 6-3 to move on to the US Open men's singles fourth round   It also marks the first time since 2003 that four American men have reached the fourth round and the deepest that Young has gone in a Grand Slam tournament. 

Young's next match is a clash with tournament 4th seed Andy Murray of Great Britain. .If Young survives that match he'll play the winner of the John Isner-Gilles Simon match in the quarterfinals.  

He's also on the same side of the US open bracket with Spain's Rafael Nadal.   


But the question many tennis fans are asking is are we finally seeing the birth of an American men's tennis player who can challenge the dominance of the European superstars like Nadal,  Federer and now Djokovic?

Only time will tell.

Serena's third round match yesterday against fourth seeded Victoria Azarenka of Belarus was a tale of two sets.  It took her 17 minutes to race to a 5-0 lead and 28 total minutes of work to comfortably breeze through the first set  

The second set was a different story as it took an hour and twenty-two minutes to play..

In the second set Azarenka fought her tooth and nail.  She survived three match points in the ninth game, broke Serena's serve in the next game and eventually forced a tiebreaker.  Little Sis eventually triumphed 6-1,7-6 (7-5) despite struggling with her serve for most of the day.  

Serena only got 49% of her first serves in for the match, but whacking 12 aces and hitting 39 winners will take you a long way in determining who wins and who loses in a closely fought match filled with high quality shots from both sides..  But Serena's task of surviving this match and moving on was accomplished and served notice that despite been seeded 28th, she is one of the favorites to win this edition of the US Open and capture her 14th title.

She moves on to the fourth round and a match with Serbia's Ana Ivanovic.

First, the bad health news concerning my fave tennis playing siblings.   Venus withdrew from the 2011 edition of the US Open minutes before she was to play Germany's Sabine Lisicki after announcing she was diagnosed with Sjögren's Syndrome.



“I enjoyed playing my first match here,” Venus said, “and wish I could
continue, but right now I am unable to. I am thankful I finally have a
diagnosis and am now focused on getting better and returning to the
court soon.”



The good tennis news is that Little Sis is still playing and still one of the favorites to win the 2011 US Open women's singles title.  She took only 49 minutes to blitz through her second round 6-0, 6-1 straight set win over Michaella Krajicek of the Netherlands.  



Serena's third round opponent promises to be a little tougher today in fourth seeded Victoria Azarenka of Belarus, but we'll see. 



Speaking of seeing things, I hope that wasn't the last time we will see Venus playing professional tennis or the last time I get to write a post about her tennis playing exploits.. 

It was the first match that Serena has played in New York since that infamous 2009 semifinal, and it didn't last long for the crowd gathered at Arthur Ashe Stadium either.



She's had a tough year injury wise and spent more time recovering from them than playing, but 28th seeded Little Sis took only 56 minutes to execute her 6-1, 6-1 opening round victory over 19 year old Serbian Bojana Jovanowski.  



In the process  she served notice that despite her seeding, she is one of the favorites to win the 2011 US Open women's singles title.



She moves on to her second round match against Michaella Krajicek of the Netherlands while Big Sis tackles Sabine Lisicki of Germany in hers.. 

My favorite tennis playing siblings are playing in the last Grand Slam tournament of the 2011 tennis season at the  US Open in New York.   They are only playing women's singles in this one probably to the relief of the women's doubles competitors.

They are thankfully on opposite sides of the draw once again, with Serena on the side of the draw that contains current world number one player and number one seeded Caroline Wozniacki.     


Serena hasn't played her opening round match yet, bit the unseeded Venus has gotten her US Open play off to a successful start yesterday by winning in straight sets 6-4, 6-3 against Russia's Vesna Dolonts.  26th seeded Little Sis has an opening round match with Serbia's Bojana Jovanoswski.



The US Open continues through September 11, and it would be nice to see them be the last women standing on that day.