A rampaging Serena Williams moved to the brink of a record equalling 24th career Grand Slam title on Thursday, storming past Elina Svitolina 6-3 6-1 to book her spot in the US Open final.
Since returning to action after the birth of her first child, Williams has come agonizingly close to matching Margaret Court's mark three times and will have a chance on Saturday to do so in front of an adoring home crowd for a second successive year.
Last year Williams was left in tears following a chaotic and controversial loss to Naomi Osaka on Arthur Ashe Stadium. She has also lost two Wimbledon finals since her return.
Now all that stands between the 37-year-old and her Holy Grail is Canadian Bianca Andreescu or Swiss Belinda Bencic, who will meet in the other semi-final later on Thursday.
"To be in yet another final, it seems honestly crazy," said Williams. "But I don't really expect too much less.
"I've had so many chances to pass it (Court).
"If you look at the span of the career, the players I've played, it's amazing that I was able to get this many."
The semi-final offered a classic matchup of styles with Williams and her prodigious power up against Svitolina, one of the best counter punchers in the women's game.
Williams did not have her 'A' game in warm conditions but the former world number one knew exactly what was needed particularly on the big points.
"I don't think she played amazing today but she played very high level at the beginning where you had to make a difference," said Svitolina. "I think she knows what she has to do.
"There's lots of power behind her shots all the time.
"On the important moments she always steps up, always brings her best game."
The fifth seeded Ukrainian had no shortage of chances herself but could not convert any of six break opportunities.
A ruthless Williams, however, bombarded Svitolina with punishing forehands and six aces to register her 101st U.S. Open win, which tied her with Chris Evert for the most at Flushing Meadows.
Williams arrived at the year's final Grand Slam with a scowl and an all business demeanor that has swatted aside a raft of challengers throughout her run to the final.
Any concerns over the back spasms that forced her to quit the Toronto final and out of Cincinnati were eased when she opened her Flushing Meadows account with a 6-1 6-1 thrashing of old rival Maria Sharapova.
That was followed by routine wins over Karolina Muchova, Petra Martic and Cat McNally before blasting her way into the last four with a jaw-dropping 44-minute 6-1 6-0 rout of China's Wang Qiang. But as cold-blooded as those performances were, Williams' 70-minute dismantling of Svitolina in front of a packed house said more by delivering an emphatic message she would not be content leaving Flushing Meadows without a share of Court's record.
The match had looked to be a long and competitive affair when Svitolina forced Williams to fight off three break points to hold her opening serve.
Williams, however, was ready for the challenge, breaking Svitolina at the first opportunity by firing a winner down the line the Ukrainian could only look at.
That was the only break of a grinding first set but all Williams would need for a 1-0 lead.
It was not a good omen for Svitolina with Williams holding a 94-1 record when winning the first set at the U.S. Open.
Svitolina would hold serve to open the second but Williams then swept through the next six games to advance to her 33rd Grand Slam final.
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Belinda Bencic reached her first-ever Grand Slam semi-final on Wednesday, fending off Donna Vekic to win 7-6(5) 6-3 in their US Open last-eight clash on Arthur Ashe Stadium.
The pair appeared evenly matched through most of the first set, as Switzerland's Bencic struggled for consistency on serve, firing off five aces but committing four double faults.
The 13th seed took command of the match in the second set, committing just four unforced errors compared to 17 in the first.
Croatian Vekic fired 28 winners during the match but failed to save critical break points against her, as an elated Bencic reached a new milestone in an injury-plagued career.
"Sometimes you all take it a little bit for granted," said the 22-year-old, who stunned world number one and defending champion Naomi Osaka earlier in the week. "When you can’t play you miss it so much.
"For me it’s a perspective change and I am enjoying playing tennis so much now."
Bencic next plays either Canada's Bianca Andreescu or Belgium's Elise Mertens, who face off under the lights at Arthur Ashe Stadium later on Wednesday.
"For sure Andreescu has a lot of variation in her game. Mertens is more like a wall-type of game. She's a great counter-puncher," said Bencic.
"Definitely I'm very curious who is going to win and adapt to the opponent in the semi-finals."
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Naomi Osaka was upset 7-5 6-4 by Belinda Bencic at the US Open on Monday as the Japanese lost her grip on both her title and number one status while the Swiss reached the quarter-finals at Flushing Meadows for the second time.
Bencic got off to a bright start on a rainy day in New York, breaking the world number one under the closed roof of Arthur Ashe Stadium, and her superior serving carried the day as she won 82% of her first serve points.
Momentum swung firmly in the 22-year-old Bencic's direction in the second set when Osaka double faulted to hand the 13th seed a 3-2 lead and the top-seeded Japanese, who appeared to struggle with a troublesome left knee, was unable to recover.
Bencic improved to 3-0 this year against the 21-year-old Osaka, who came through an emotional straight sets win over 15-year-old American Coco Gauff in the third round on Saturday.
Osaka's defeat means Australia's Ash Barty, who lost in straight sets to China's Wang Qiang in the fourth round on Sunday, will regain the world number one spot from the Japanese.
Osaka said that although she was disappointed with Monday's result she still considered her trip to New York a success.
"Right now I have this feeling of sadness, but I also feel like I have learned so much during this tournament," she told reporters.
"The steps that I have taken as a person have been much greater than I would imagine at this point.
"So I hope that I can keep growing. I know that if I keep working hard, then of course I'll have better results."
BIG CHALLENGE
Bencic, who also reached the U.S. Open quarter-finals in 2014 when she was just 17 but has struggled with injuries in recent years, said that taking Osaka's powerful serve early and keeping her energy up was the key to winning the match.
"I was so excited to come on the court, the challenge could not be bigger so I had to be on top of my game," she said in an on-court interview.
"I'm really pleased with how I played and how I managed my nerves in the end," she added.
"I'm not the person with the most winners or aces, I had to play it a bit like chess with tactics on the court."
Despite the lack of a big serve, Bencic played fluently, finishing with 29 winners to just 12 unforced errors and breaking Osaka three times.
Osaka's loss comes the day after top seed Novak Djokovic fell to another Swiss, Stan Wawrinka.
Next up for Bencic is a meeting with Croatia's 23rd seed Donna Vekic, who beat Germany's Julia Goerges 6-7(5) 7-5 6-3 on Louis Armstrong Stadium court earlier on Monday.
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Crowd-pleasing teenager Coco Gauff came through a tough battle with qualifier Timea Babos 6-2 4-6 6-4 on Thursday to set up a third-round clash at the US Open against top seed and defending champion Naomi Osaka.
The 15-year-old American phenom was forced to dig deep to become the youngest player since Anna Kournikova in 1996 to reach the third round of the women's singles at Flushing Meadows.
"I was tested a lot. I think we both were just testing each other," Gauff said. "It’s just that type of match where anyone could have won."
Gauff rode into this year's tournament with enormous expectations after a dream run at Wimbledon where she beat five-times champion Venus Williams on her way to the fourth round.
A fired up Gauff prevailed after a 12-stroke rally late in the third set to set up a break point opportunity, pumping her fists wildly and shouting in excitement in front of a packed crowd that was firmly on her side.
The pair seemed nearly evenly matched, with wildcard Gauff maintaining a slightly tighter performance and committing 34 unforced errors compared to 42 from Hungarian Babos.
Gauff will face off against 21-year-old Osaka, who also holds the Australian Open title, in the third round of the tournament on Saturday for a clash that may provide a glimpse at the future of the women's game.
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Stefanos Tsitsipas called an umpire a "weirdo" after being told to hurry back onto court during his first-round loss to Andrey Rublev at the U.S. Open on Tuesday and the Greek later said he was struggling for inspiration in his game.
After his Russian opponent broke to lead 4-3 in the final set, Tsitsipas, who had already received a coaching warning and time violation, did not take kindly to being told to speed things up by French chair umpire Damien Dumusois.
"You are the worst. For some reason, you have something against me, I don't know what. Because you're French probably. And you're all weirdos. You're all weirdos," the 21-year-old shouted.
"Give me warning, I don't care. Give me warning, give me warning, yeah, give me warning, I don’t care. Give me warning!"
The eighth seed, who battled leg cramps during the final set, got what he asked for and given it was his second time violation of the match, it came with a point penalty.
The subsequent 6-4 6-7(5) 7-6(7) 7-5 loss meant Tsitsipas has now fallen at the first hurdle in three successive tournaments.
"I feel like I'm doing the same thing over and over again, and my brain can't really take it anymore," said Tsitsipas.
"I feel like I'm doing the same routines on the court, the same execution, the same -- I mean, same strategies and everything.
"And I feel like my mind is just -- I don't feel inspired. I play out on the court, and I don't feel like I'm chasing something."
Tsitsipas reached the Australian Open semi-finals in January but since falling in the first round at Wimbledon last month appears to have lost his way.
"I don't think he's necessarily uninspired, it's more that he's a little confused, that's my feeling from the outside," said former world number two and Eurosport analyst Alex Corretja.
After an ongoing dialogue with the umpire throughout the first four sets, Tsitsipas started to unravel when he was issued a warning for coaching.
Tsitsipas said his father and coach Apostolos had offered only words of encouragement and conceded that the coaching violation had thrown him off his stride.
"It's not very pleasant when you have the umpire give you warnings and time violations and coaching violations during a match. It can affect your thinking. It can affect your decision making," said Tsitsipas.
"I don't know what this chair umpire has in specific against my team but he's been complaining and telling me that my team talks all of the time when I'm out on the court playing," he added.
"He's very - I don't know. I believe he's not right, because I never hear anything of what my team says from the outside."
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Dominic Thiem’s latest bid for Grand Slam glory came to an abrupt end at the U.S. Open on Tuesday when he fell to unseeded Thomas Fabbiano 6-4 3-6 6-3 6-2 in a shock first-round exit, the biggest upset of the men's competition so far.
The fourth-seeded Austrian’s blistering serve yielded 14 aces but it was not enough to overcome the 30-year-old Fabbiano, whose fearsome forehand helped him save nine out of the 10 break points he faced.
The 25-year-old Thiem did himself no favours, committing 48 unforced errors during the match at Arthur Ashe Stadium, 28 more than his Italian opponent.
“I beat a top-10 guy in Wimbledon and another one here,” said Fabbiano, who upset world number eight Stefanos Tsitsipas in their first-round meeting at the All England Club in July.
“I’m starting to like to play these big matches and my game is coming better and better.”
Thiem said he was fatigued after the second set and that he was "far away from 100%.
"Congratulations to (Fabbiano) and I'm happy for him. But it was not the real me there on the court," Thiem said. "But I don't know how much his performance is worth because (it) was not against the real me."
For Thiem, who toppled Roger Federer earlier this year in the final at Indian Wells, the loss marks the latest frustration in his bid to claim a Grand Slam title.
Thiem was beaten by the King of Clay, Rafa Nadal in the 2018 and 2019 French Open finals, as well as in their quarter-final match at last year's U.S. Open.
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