It means a lot to me to come out here to play as an American,” Williams told CBS after the match. “It’s been a long and arduous journey—the support from the fans really helped. You guys need to come back tomorrow to keep supporting me.”
Truth be told, not all of Williams’ weapons were working at 100%: she only landed 50 percent of her first serves inbounds in the first set, 62 percent on the match. Of course, when that serves hits 118 mph, the ones that do land in don’t often come back—Williams had 11 aces in two sets.
Serena also hit as many errors as winners, at 34 each, and four double faults.
What she did to compensate was come to the net, very successfully; 17 out of 21 approaches netter her points for an 81 percent average. “Normally I only come to the net to shake hands, but today I figured I would try something different,” she told CBS Sports after the match.
While Wozniacki was completely overwhelmed in the first set, wining just two games, she managed to put up a struggle in the second. In the first set the top-ranked Dane played purely defensively, waiting for Williams to make errors.
In the second set she turned up the aggression a notch, scoring an ace and hitting five winners, compared to none of either in the first set. Still it was more Williams’ mishits than Wozniacki’s attacks which earned the top-ranked Wozniacki two service breaks in the second set.
Williams stopped play halfway through the first set to get medical treatment for a toe on her right foot—possibly the toe which was lacerated last season and which started her long layoff. Serena showed no signs of injury afterwards
Williams faces 10th-ranked Australian Samantha Stosur in the Final on Saturday. Stosur has never gotten past the Quarterfinals at the US Open before, though she has made it to the semis and finished as runner up at the French Open in 2009 and 2010.
The Australian defeated Williams in the French Open Quarterfinals in 2010; Williams beat her in that year’s Australian Open.
