American Women’s Stars Fall In US Open Semis

CHARLESTON, S.C. – – Thursday wasn’t a good day for American women’s tennis stars.

Jessica Pegula and Coco Gauff struggled with keeping the ball on the Arthur Ashe court in the semifinals of the U.S. Open.

Pegula especially struggled with Aryna Sabalenka’s mightily struck ground strokes and serves. Pegula’s dreams of a Grand Slam championship went away relatively quick in a 7-5, 6-2 loss that carried Belarus native Sabalenka to a fourth consecutive U.S. Open final.

Gauff wasn’t much better the last two sets as Moscow native Elena Rybakina slowed down Gauff’s big game and athletic ability for a 3-6, 6-4, 6-4 victory.

The currently top-ranked Sabalenka was the real star of the night. She is assured of losing the No.1 spot to Rybakina in Saturday’s final, but Sabalenka definitely is the best women’s tennis player on the planet.

She was superb against Pegula from start to finish. The American was no match for the mighty blows of Sabalenka.

Sabalenka’s powerful shots to every corner repeatedly were too strong for Pegula to keep in play. Too much for Pegula to handle.

It was a mismatch as Sabalenka won her 19th consecutive U.S. Open match.

It was much that same way also for Gauff against Rybakina in their first set as the athletic Coco was everywhere while winning rather easily.

Things changed in the second set as Rybakina broke Gauff in the fourth game, but allowed Gauff to get back to 4-4 before Rybakina held service at love and then closed out the set after Gauff double-faulted to give Rybakina a double set point.

Gauff couldn’t get back to even in the third set after netting a backhand to give Rybakina a 5-3 lead, even though Gauff broke right back to close to 5-4 with a break of her own.

Rybakina blitzed Gauff’s service in the 10th game just as she had in the second set. After the set went to double match point, Gauff miss-hit an overhead to end the match.

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James Beck was the 2003 winner of the USTA National Media Award for print media. A 1995 MBA graduate of The Citadel, he can be reached at Jamesbecktennis@gmail.com.