US Open: Upsets set up all-Italian women’s final

The U.S. Open women’s semi-finals scheduled to be played on Thursday evening have been postponed.

“My goal was just to play Rome, to be a good Italian player”.

“And then now I have my final tomorrow”.

“This is an incredible moment for me“, said Vinci, close to tears for a moment as her momentous win began to sink in. “But today is my day, sorry guys”. “But let’s wait and see whether Serena makes it to the final”. A 12-1 underdog at the Westgate Las Vegas SuperBook, Vinci admitted that even she did not expect to win.

“For the American people, for Serena, for the Grand Slam and everything”, she said. “But yeah, I think she literally played out of her mind”.

“This is what all players want to do, go out taking a big trophy home”. Actually, I guess it’s inspiring.

“I mean, everyone knows Serena, she’s the best player”.

Chasing her first grand slam singles title, Halep came out strong against Azarenka and took the opening set but as storm clouds rolled in so did trouble for the diminutive Romanian as the Belarusian sent her scurrying from corner to corner to level the quarter-final at one set apiece.

The first semifinal Friday will be No. 2 Simona Halep of Romania against No. 26 Flavia Pennetta of Italy.

Serena Williams refused to speak of her disappointment after her dreams of a calendar Grand Slam were ended in the US Open semi-finals. The siblings met in the quarterfinals on Tuesday, where Serena defeated her older sister after three sets (6-2, 1-6, 6-3).

“I felt very happy to get that win at Wimbledon, you know”.

“Both teams are playing well, they’ve played a lot of great tennis this week”, Murray said. “She’s the favorite. Maybe she’ll feel the pressure“.

“Sometimes it’s getting hard for me to compete”, Pennetta said.

That left it for her coach, Patrick Mouratoglou, to sum up the failure.

Prior to Friday, Vinci lost all four of their head-to-heads without claiming a set. She yelled between points often after falling behind to start the fifth game, in which she held.

Vinci joked she would have to hide her face the next time she saw Williams.

After breaking for a 2-0 lead, Williams double faulted away a break to Vinci in the next game. Vinci pointed to herself, urging the full house at Arthur Ashe Stadium to root for her. “She’s supposed to win this tournament“, Pennetta said.

From the latter perspective, this achievement – leading to a potential maiden major’s title – has thus been a long time coming for the Brindisi native, who’s been on the Tour for almost 15-years now.