Sports

Serena Williams reaches 12th straight US Open quarter-final

Published

4 years ago

September 7, 2020

Serena Williams advanced to her 12th straight US Open quarterfinal, beating Greek Maria Sakkari 6-3, 6-7 (6), 6-3 in the fourth round on Monday.

Williams, eyeing a record-tying 24th Grand Slam singles title, rallied after having her serve broken in the first game of the third set. She broke Sakkari three games later, then did it again to go up 5-3 before serving it out..

Williams served a 124 mile-per-hour ace late in the third set, fastest of the tournament.

Sakkari, the 15th seed, defeated Williams in three sets two weeks ago at the Western & Southern Open, also held at the U.S. Open site in New York.

The third seed Williams gets Frenchwoman Alize Cornet or Bulgarian Tsvetana Pironkova in the quarters, looking to make her 11th straight U.S. Open semifinal (not counting years she was absent).

Neither player is seeded, but Cornet has one of the strongest records against Williams (3-4) of any woman to play her that much. Pironkova, a 2010 Wimbledon semifinalist, is playing her first event since 2017 Wimbledon and 2018 childbirth.

Williams could play No. 2 Sofia Kenin in the semifinals and No. 4 Naomi Osaka in the final, the other remaining top-15 seeds.