9A5CE6F1-5893-4B82-A009-3D29180A9B05
By Richard Pagliaro
© Andy Kentla
© Michael O'Kane
(September 10, 2010) The distance between the two old rivals shrunk to the size of the sweatband Kim Clijsters used to swipe the sweat off her forehead. The reigning US Open champion had watched her third-set lead evaporate and could hear Venus Williams' fast footsteps approaching net with the set deadlocked at 4-all. That's when Clijsters created closure by playing over Williams' head.
Lofting a looping topspin lob into the wind, Clijsters watched the ball sail over Williams' outstretched Wilson racquet and land a few feet inside the baseline, earning her the crucial break and a 5-4 lead.
Exploring every stroke in her shot spectrum, Clijsters served out a tense 4-6, 7-6(2), 6-4 conquest of Williams in a rollercoaster of a wildly windy match to advance to her fourth US Open final in her last four Flushing Meadows appearances.
"I thought as long as I keep trying, I have to make one," Clijsters said of the lob. "It's instinct. You decide to do that and it works. It was an important point and I'm happy to get through. You can put a little bit more behind it because I was against the wind."
It was Clijsters' 20th consecutive US Open victory, tying her with Martina Navratilova, Monica Seles and Venus for the second-longest US Open winning streak in the Open Era.
"It obviously means a lot to be in the final and to give myself a chance to defend my my title from last year. It's a great opportunity," Clijsters said. "I think today was probably one of the best matches that I've played throughout the tournament. I was able to raise my level, and that's probably what I'm most please about is obviously I was able to win a close match like this, but that I was able to kind of rise to the occasion when I had to."
It was the 13th meeting between Venus and Clijsters, who has won five in a row to take a 7-6 lead in the head-to-head series. Tennis' top working mom denied Williams' quest to return to the US Open final for the first time since 2002. Williams entered the Open without playing a single match during the US Open Series yet came within a few points of navigating her way to the final.
"I definitely feel like I'll be back next year. This is what I do, and I feel like I played great tennis even with minimal preparation," Venus said. "Obviously I would have liked to win this match and be playing tomorrow. I may have lost the match, but that's just this match. There will be others."
Serena Williams, looking champion chic in Venus' support box, sat this Open out and in Serena's absence Clijsters is the best hard-court player in the world, in part because she's the most balanced offensively and defensively. Then there's the fact she's always been at her best on North American hard-courts. When she stormed to her first career Grand Slam title at the 2005 US Open, Clijsters simply wore out Williams in rallying for a 4-6, 7-5, 6-1 quarterfinal victory, and posted a 36-1 record on American hard courts that year.
"I always feel good here so I know that if I play good tennis and if I can give myself an opportunity to get into that second week and play those big matches, I mean this is where I've played some of the best tennis that I've ever played," Clijsters said. "So if I can give myself those opportunities to play these kind of matches and not get surprised by opponents in the beginning of the tournament, then anything is possible."
The second-seeded Clijsters will carry a 5-2 career record into tomorrow night's final against Vera Zvonareva. But Zvonareva has the game to pose problems for the two-time champion as evidenced by the fact she's won their last two meetings. Zvonareva surprised Clijsters, 3-6, 6-4, 6-2 in the Wimbledon quarterfinals in June then grounded a slightly hobbled Clijsters, who suffered a leg strain, 2-6, 6-3, 6-2 in last month's Montreal quarterfinals.
A Wimbledon finalist in singles and doubles, Zvonareva doesn't have one overwhelming weapon, but she can hit any shot from any position on the court and showcased her net skills in today's first semifinal.
"She's a very, very tough opponent. Obviously, I've lost my last two matches with her," Clijsters said. "She's a player who doesn't give you much. It's not that she has a game that's very unpredictable, but what she does, she does extremely well. It's gonna be a lot different match than it was today. She has a really good backhand and she's been serving a lot better in the last few months."
The seventh-seeded Russian surrendered serve just once in scoring a stirring 6-4, 6-3 victory over top-seeded Caroline Wozniacki to advance to her second consecutive Grand Slam final.
Zvonareva snapped Wozniacki's 13-match winning streak by playing with purpose and passion in persistently pushing the 2009 US Open finalist into defensive positions on the court.
"Any match with Kim will come down to the tough challenge," Zvonareva said. "She's a great mover on the court. She has a lot of experience. She won here last year. You know, it's going to be tough. We played a couple of matches for the past couple of months, but those matches are in the past."
Williams missed the entire US Open Series while recovering from a knee injury. Her court appearances were confined to World TeamTennis, a few clinics and a book signing appearance at the Los Angeles tournament. Though she was short on match play, Williams wields an abundance of experience, a whipping 120 mph first serve and wisely acted on the fact she could not grind with Clijsters today. Her best shot was moving forward and pressuring the reigning champion.
Pressure, the tormenting winds and Clijsters' unrelenting pursuit of every ball created a cocktail of torture for Williams in the tiebreaker as she hit two of her seven double faults in the break then badly bungled an easy overhead to fall behind 1-5. Banging a backhand into the net, Williams handled Clijsters five set points and she closed the set in 62 minutes.
"Obviously in the tie break I wasn't able to play as well as I wanted," Williams said. "I had too many errors, and she played some good tennis"
Clijsters saved a break point in her opening service game of the final set. She broke for a 2-1 lead when Williams buried a backhand into the net.
Serving at 4-3,Clijsters unravaled in committing two double faults. She had a clear look at the open court but slapped a swinging forehand volley four feet long to hand back the break and it was 4-all.
Father Richard Williams was gnawing nervously on a toothpick as his daughter tried to consolidate the break only to see Venus victmized when Clijsters rode the current of the blustery breeze with two running rainbow lobs that lit up the murky sky. Stabbing a stretch backhand lob in the corner, Clijsters hammered a forehand winner down the line and when Venus double faulted beyond the box, Clijsters had double break point.
Staying true to her game plan, Williams did the right thing and attacked net behind a vicious forehand, but did not do enough with the forehand volley and paused momentarily to watch that shot land. That's when Clijsters, hitting against the wind, went airborne with the lob that broke Williams' serve and shattered her hopes in the process.
"I felt like I was trying to be aggressive in that game, and I came in you know, three out of five points. Unfortunately it didn't work for me," Williams said. "She was playing against the wind, so it just blows the ball back in. There's not so much I could do on those points. It was kind of a little bit of bad luck for me. You know, she just played to win."
A Clijsters' win in tomorrow's 7 p.m. final would make her the first woman to successfully defend the Open since Venus did it in 2001.