Serena Williams took the drama completely out of her U.S. Open third-round night match against big sister Venus Williams in Arthur Ashe Stadium on Friday. In the 30th career showdown between the sisters, Serena rolled 6-1, 6-2 to earn a place in the second week of the season’s final major.
“It feels good for the match to be over with,” the 36-year-old said. “Win or lose, it just feels good that that’s done.”
She certainly seemed in a hurry to get it over with. Serena fired 34 winners–20 more than Venus–and dominated in only hour and 12 minutes.
“I think it’s by far the best match I ever played against her in forever,” the former world No. 1 commented. “But I don’t know about ever, ever. It probably was. I played much better tonight than I have since I started this journey on my way back.”
“I think it’s the best match she’s ever played against me,” Venus added. “I don’t think I did a lot wrong. But she just did everything right. Obviously that level is definitely where she’s going to want to stay during this whole tournament. She played so well, I never got to really even touch any balls. When your opponent plays like that, it’s not really anything to be upset about. The only thing I maybe could have done was put more first serves in–even they she returned the first serve really well. Any shot that I hit great, she hit a greater shot. Not a lot I can do.”
Friday was, though, not without drama. Rafael Nadal and Karen Khachanov provided it on Friday afternoon. The top seed and defending champion survived a spirited effort from the underdog to prevail 5-7, 7-5, 7-6(7), 7-6(3) in four hours and 23 minutes.
Khachanov had Nadal on the ropes when he served for a two-set lead late in the second. Although the Spaniard broke back and stole that set, he never managed to gain complete control of the match. Nadal took both the third and fourth in tiebreakers, with the former being an especially dramatic roller-coaster ride–complete with nervous errors and also incredible rallies.
“In general terms, I’m happy the way I played the tough moments,” Nadal said. “The spirit of fight I think was good. At the end of the day is a great victory against a very tough opponent without playing at my highest level. But it was a great show, I think. Great [entertainment]. The crowd enjoyed, I think.”
Khachanov saw it the same way.
‘There were two tiebreaks, two sets 7-6, 7-6–he had chances, opportunities; I had opportunities,” the Russian concluded. “Just a very close match, yeah. Good match. I hope people enjoyed, especially first time for me on Arthur Ashe. The atmosphere was amazing.”
[polldaddy poll=10095015]
knee issue?
I’m not happy at all that the knees are even mentioned! Rafa said that he believes he will be fine in the next match. But he also said that he won’t talk much about it until the tournament ist over for him.
If I go by Moya’s words, the knees have been a constant niggling during this season, which Rafa handled well. But we would’ve an explanation why his serving has been not on the same level as last year.
If Rafa didn’t contract any further physical damage during this gruelling match, I’m reasonably optimistic for all encounters in his half. But if he reaches the final and meets the Djoker, there migh be a problem.
Rafa match was one of the best so far, enjoyed it all. Serena and Venus, appreciate the history, match, not so much.
Only Nadal could have won the match that he should have lost …. http://www.138mph.com/us-open-tennis-nadal-federer-djokovic-sabalenka-kyrgios-sharapova-et-al/