Serena Williams only need an hour-and-a-half to defeat Dinara Safina in straight sets 6-3, 6-2. Williams really just let Safina implode: the Russian had 41 unforced errors, and won only 29 percent of points off her second serve.

After the match, Venus Williams was waiting for her kid sister outside the women's locker room with Hank Kuehne. An absolutely elated Arlen Kantarian, the CEO of the USTA, strolled by and tapped Venus Williams arm and then began clapping his hands. He gave her a thumbs up, and smiled ear to ear.

It's the first time the USTA has been able to feature a Williams sister in the Open final since 2002.

And it looks like that primetime final will be even more primetime: If rain hits, there's a good chance that match will be on Sunday night at 9 p.m. on CBS.

A lot is being made today of Venus' "uncharacteristic" play last night: she made 45 unforced errors, and blew 10 set point opportunites. But really, this is the Venus Williams we've seen over the last couple years at the Open.

Last year, when she played Jelena Jankovic in the quarters, she commited 56 unforced errors, and then hit another 35 in her semifinal loss to Justine Henin. Afterward, everyone was wondering if something was seriously wrong with Venus; her mother, Oracene Williams, made the now-ridiculous seeming claim that her daughter would be checked into the Mayo clinic afterwards.

I caught up with Carlos Fleming, Venus' agent, before the Open began on the rooftop of the Empire Hotel and he told me she was just exhausted last year--nothing more.  read more »

The Women's Tennis Association is clearly troubled by the injuries and disaffection that have plagued the tour in the last few years, and yesterday they announced a plan to do something about it.

In a "roadmap," the WTA announced that the amount of required tournaments will be scaled back from 12 to 10 (in addition to the four Grand Slams), and if players decide to skip out any of them, they risk suspension. The season will be shorter, the court surface transitions (hard court to clay to grass to hard court) will be smoothed out to reduce jarring changes from one tournament to another.

This is clearly an attempt to prevent everything that went so wrong for women's tennis in this U.  read more »

Serena's been talking all year now about how much she wants to up her ranking, and how much she wants to be feared (and respected) again.

She's moving closer toward that goal. Even though her sister blew 10 set points last night, Serena showed a focused intesnity that we haven't seen since the days she dominated the tour. Before the tournament began, we wondered if she even had any good tennis left in her. Her determination has been back for the better part of the year, but she just wasn't winning, and it was hard to tell why. In the past if she wanted to win, like at the 2007 Australian Open, she won.  read more »

Venus Williams was the popular pick for tonight's match, but 45 unforced errors later, Serena Williams is heading to her first semifinal at the Open since 2002 with a dramatic, hard-knocked 7-6, 7-6 win.

Moments after Serena won, she was greeted at the entryway of the women's locker room by Venus' companion Hank Kuehne who told her congratulations. She barely seemed to notice, and offered a half-hearted, "Yeah, oh, thank you." She was too busy smiling, a far different picture after her quarterfinal loss last year against Justine Henin when she entered the locker room sobbing. 

"Definitely can't believe I won," she offered to no one in particular, her voice full of glee, as she made her way into the locker room.

We tried it three times last year and it went well, so here goes for the first time in 2008: a live blog! Follow along by clicking "READ MORE" and please hit me up on aim at johnkoblin if you'd like to chat.

8:31: There are about 20,000 people filing in all at once, so we're not entirely filled up yet.

8:33: Early question: awkward tennis from the Williams sisters (as we usually see) or fun tennis (as with their Wimbledon final two months ago)?

8:35: It is cold here! Both players are wearing jackets in warm-ups (Serena in a Nike jacket, Venus in an Eleven jacket, the brand she started) and I'm in short sleeves and kind of shivering!

8:47: Early break for Venus in the third game; she's up 2-1 in the first set.  read more »

I wanted to pick Serena Williams tonight, if for no other good reason than to buck conventional wisdom by going against the Wimbledon champ, Venus Williams. But a friend of mine who served as our unofficial resident Serena/Venus expert last year has convinced me otherwise. 

Goldburn: this is the best i've seen venus play at the beginning of a grand slam in a long time. even the last three wimbledons she won, she started out slow. she's moving great and her forehands are staying in. serena is playing well but not A+ like when she beat sharapova at the australian. i think its truly a toss up.

 read more »

I just caught up with Bud Collins and asked for his pick tonight in the Williams sisters quarterfinal.

"I picked Venus to win the [Open], so I guess I have to stick with her," he said. "It's very interesting. When [Venus] came along, Richard Williams said Serena was going to be better. And she did get better results, but I always felt Venus would be the better player because of the reach and her speed. And now she's starting to come to the net, which is nice. I'll stick with her. The winner of the tournament comes out of that match."

Tonight, we'll have a rematch of the Wimbledon final, but in the quarterfinals. Serena versus Venus. Serena desperately wants to get back to the semis here--she hasn't done it since 2002. Venus is red-hot after the Wimbledon final, but wants to win her first non-grass Grand Slam since 2001.

I'll be running around the tennis center today looking for expert opinions on the match, which may serve as the women's de facto final.

Taken at face value, the fourth-round match of Marion Bartoli and Sybille Bammer on Aug. 31 had a lot going for it. Both athletes played the grinding, gutsy tennis that New Yorkers adore, and the 3-hour, 3-minute match that ensued was tied for the longest in U.S. Open’s women’s history. 

No one cared. 

Throughout Louis Armstrong Stadium in Flushing, where the epic match was being played, many—too many—of the attending fans were holding little digital American Express TVs, keeping track of a sleepy Roger Federer-Radek Stepanek third-round match being played next door at Arthur Ashe Stadium. The PA system at the Ashe match dominated the quiet sound-space of Armstrong with songs like “Still the One” and “Welcome to the Jungle” at top volume between the Federer match and the Andy Roddick one that followed.  read more »