Stephens upstages Venus to reach US Open final

Published by Matt Trollope

Sloane Stephens celebrates her semifinal triumph over Venus Williams at the US Open in New York; Getty Images
Sloane Stephens’ comeback fairytale continued on Thursday night at the US Open after the 24-year-old stunned Venus Williams to reach her first ever Grand Slam final.

Sloane Stephens has advanced to her first Grand Slam final with a thrilling three-set victory over Venus Williams at the US Open.

In the first of two all-American semifinals on Thursday night in New York, Stephens held her nerve in a tense, see-sawing encounter to triumph 6-1 0-6 7-5.

In the final she will face the winner of the second semifinal between Madison Keys and CoCo Vandeweghe.

This is just the fifth event of Stephens’ comeback from a foot injury which required surgery and sidelined her for almost a year.

Ranked outside the top 900 just one month ago, she is projected to rise to world No.22 when the new rankings are released on Monday.

“I have no words to describe what I’m feeling, what it took to get here. Just the journey I’ve been on – just I have no words,” she said on court after the two-hour, seven-minute victory.

“When I started my comeback, if someone told me I was gonna make two semis (Toronto and Cincinnati) and a Grand Slam final I would have probably just passed out. Because that’s what I’m ready to do now (laughter).

“It’s incredible. I don’t even know what to say. I don’t know I got here. Just hard work. That’s it.”

Stephens entered the match with a huge deficit in big-match, Grand Slam experience; Williams was appearing in her ninth US Open semifinal and in 2017 alone had reached the Australian Open and Wimbledon finals.

WOODBRIDGE: the key to Venus’ resurgence

Stephens’ lone major semifinal appearance came nearly five years ago at Australian Open 2013, when she was a teenager.

But the younger American started the match dialled in while Venus couldn’t find the court, spraying an unsightly 17 unforced errors to surrender the first set 6-1.

Perhaps Stephens suddenly realised she was just a set away from her first Grand Slam final, because her bubble suddenly burst. She became increasingly tentative and error prone as Williams settled into the contest, and suddenly games were clicking over on the scoreboard in the opposite column.

Venus clubbed twice the number of winners yet less errors to race through it 6-0.

The match was already into a third set after just 54 minutes.

This was a far more memorable stanza, full of momentum swings, tension, nerves, searching rallies, missed opportunities and blinding rallies. The crowd rode every point as Williams and Stephens traded four breaks in the first eight games – six of those games extended to deuce.

It was nearly impossible to call, but the trend appeared to be that as long as Williams found the court with her back-court bombs, she’d prevail over the less-heralded Stephens, who was tentative, passive and clearly waiting for Williams to misfire.

Then, it all changed. With Stephens serving at 4-5, 30-30 and just two points from defeat, she defended tigerishly and ended a long, thrilling point with a backhand passing shot winner up the line.

A pumped Stephens then aced Williams to hold for 5-5, and by the time she broke Williams to love in the next game, she’d won six points on the trot.

She was no longer passive, instead now hitting out and bullying a shell-shocked Williams around the court.

Serving for the match, she remained in control and Williams couldn’t go with her. A limp backhand return into the net handed Stephens a landmark victory.

“It required a lot of fight, a lot of grit,” Stephens analysed.

“I knew that if I just stayed with it and hung tough and played my game as best as I could and didn’t get too down on myself, I would have a few opportunities and that’s just what I did.

“In the third set we played some incredible points. And hopefully we makes SportsCenter tomorrow, hint hint (laughter).

“I just worked my tail off, ran every ball down, tried to get my racquet on every ball. And in the finals we are.”

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