ITF

ITFWORLD WINTER 2015 33 www.itftennis.com I n recent times there has surely never been a Grand Slam tournament quite as focused on one player as the 2015 US Open. From the moment Serena Williams won Wimbledon earlier in the summer to complete her second so-called 'Serena Slam' — winning four Grand Slam titles in succession but not in the same calendar year — it was inevitable that the 33-year-old American would be the centre of attention at Flushing Meadows. Williams was aiming to become only the fourth woman to complete a pure calendar-year Grand Slam following Maureen Connolly (1953), Margaret Court (1970) and Steffi Graf (1988). The world No. 1, who had won eight of the previous 13 Grand Slam tournaments, could hardly have believed her good fortune as several big rivals fell by the wayside in the first few days. By the end of the first round there were no other Top 10 players left in Williams's half of the draw as Maria Sharapova made a late withdrawal because of injury and Ana Ivanovic, Karolina Pliskova and Carla Suarez Navarro all lost. In the other half of the draw Lucie Safarova, the French Open runner-up, went out in the first round, and Caroline Wozniacki, the beaten finalist in New York in 2014, lost in the second. Williams, meanwhile, dropped only one set, to Bethanie Mattek-Sands, before she faced the woman she regards as her toughest opponent. Venus Williams, contesting her first US Open quarterfinal for five years, made a real fight of it before her younger sister won 62 16 63. With Simona Halep, the world No. 2, winning tough battles against Sabine Lisicki and Victoria Azarenka to reach the last four, the competition appeared to be heading for a perfect final between the top two seeds. Their semifinals, both against veteran Italians, looked straightforward enough. Williams faced Roberta Vinci, who at 32 was playing in her first Grand Slam semifinal and had yet to face a seed. She had been due to play Eugenie Bouchard in the fourth round, but the Canadian withdrew after suffering concussion in a locker room accident. Halep was facing Flavia Pennetta, who had lost in straight sets in their most recent meeting, though the world No. 26 had beaten Sam Stosur and Petra Kvitova en route to the last four. The world No. 1 underlined his supremacy with a 64 57 64 64 victory to claim his third Grand Slam title of the year. Arthur Ashe Stadium with its new roof structure in place Pennetta beat Roberta Vinci in the first all-Italian final in the Open era Novak Djokovic was unstoppable at Flushing Meadows

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