Venus Williams was pushed to three sets once again, but she prevailed in Tuesday’s quarterfinal match against Petra Kvitova, 6-3, 3-6, 7-6(2). She is now into the semifinals, where she will face the tough Sloane Stephens, an unseeded American.
US Open results 2017: Venus Williams into semifinals after 3-set win over Petra Kvitova
In a quarterfinal matchup, Venus Williams and Petra Kvitova battled three sets before the former took her spot in the semifinals.
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Williams took the first set without issue, but started to play a little sloppy in the second, which Kvitova took. The third set was hotly contested, with Williams and Kvitova both holding before Kvitova managed to score a break on Williams. She then held to go up 3-1 in the set.
From there, Williams held, and then battled back from 0-30 to take the lead and score the break. That tied things up at 3-3 in the set, and Williams held to take a 4-3 lead. Kvitova responded with a shutout game of her own, punctuating it with a huge ace to keep things on serve.
The following game was very closely contested, with Kvitova threatening a break multiple times, but Williams delivered a beautiful forehand for the advantage and Kvitova lost the game with a backhand unforced error. They both held and Kvitova was serving down 5-6, with a tiebreak on the horizon unless Williams could score a break.
She did not, and a tiebreak was forced. Williams took her service point, Kvitova took hers, and then Williams took a point from Kvitova. Williams then won her own service point to take a 4-1 lead in the tiebreak, and another to go up 5-1. Kvitova then double faulted to go behind 6-1. A double fault for Williams made it 6-2 Williams, and a forced error allowed Williams to take the win.
Stephens made it past the 16th-seeded Anastasija Sevastova on Tuesday to punch her ticket into the semifinals. Two other American women — No. 15 Madison Keys and No. 20 CoCo Vandeweghe — are still in action as well, and are set to play Kaia Kanepi and Karolina Pliskova, respectively, in the quarterfinals on Wednesday.
Stephens bested Sevastova in three sets on Tuesday, 6-3, 3-6, 7-6(4). Stephens will meet Williams in the semifinal on Thursday. Stephens is notable for having beaten Serena Williams in the quarterfinals at the 2013 Australian Open. The other semifinal will feature the winners from Wednesday’s two quarterfinal matchups.
In the first men’s quarterfinal on Tuesday, Pablo Carreno Busta made it past Diego Schwartzman in straight sets, 6-4, 6-4, 6-2. He’ll await the winner of the other quarterfinal on Tuesday evening between Sam Querrey and Kevin Anderson.
You can find updated results and the schedule for the men’s singles bracket here and the women’s singles bracket here. On Wednesday, Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal will try to punch their tickets into the semifinals, where they would play each other.
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