By Chris Oddo | @TheFanChild | Thursday September 6, 2024

New York—And then there were four – and two of them were American. The women’s semifinals are set for tonight at the US Open, with Aryna Sabalenka taking on Emma Navarro in the first match in Arthur Ashe Stadium, while Jessica Pegula will face Karolina Muchova in the nightcap.

As the possibility of the first all-American women’s singles final at the US Open since 2017 looms, we take a quick look at the matchups…

Sabalenka vs Navarro
Head-to-Head: Tied 1-1

Key Stat: Navarro entered the tournament with an 0-2 lifetime record at the US Open. She is the sixth player in the last 40 years to make the US Open SF without a single previous main draw win at the event, after Steffi Graf (1985), Venus Williams (1997), Yanina Wickmayer (2009), Bianca Andreescu (2019) and Emma Raducanu (2021).

Key Stat # 2: Two-time major champion Sabalenka is playing her fourth consecutive US Open semifinal (1-2).

The Matchup It’s a matchup of Sabalenka’s high octane power versus Navarro’s consistency and tactics. The athleticism and fitness of both is top notch.

The Belarusian is a force of nature on the court, capable of taking the racquet out of any player's hands, and she is underrated in the athleticism department as well. Sabalenka is the reigning Australian Open champion and she has now won 12 consecutive hard court Grand Slam matches. She hasn’t dropped serve since the third round and she is the only remaining player to have held serve in over 90 percent of her service games.

That will be the critical matchup, as Navarro leads all players with 48 percent of return games won.

The American will look to be aggressive when she has the chance, as she doesn’t want to spend the match on the run, and has the game to do that. Navarro is gifted off of both wings and has enough variety – of pace and trajectory – to keep Sabalenka guessing.

Sabalenka, if she executes off the serve, and the return, can be impossible to stop. Her power is unmatched on tour. Navarro’s task will be to keep her from controlling the run of play and mixing and matching as much as she can.



What they’re saying:

Sabalenka on being the favorite to win it all: “If you get to the top-5 level, anyway, everyone will take you as a favorite. But as I always say, it's not about being favorite, it's about how hard you're ready to fight for it. It's going to be tough moments in the matches when you don't feel your best and you have to go through it. It's all about that.

“But I'm really glad they take me as a favorite, and I'll do my very best to hold this beautiful trophy.”

Sabalenka on facing Navarro: “She's doing really well. Beautiful to see she's working hard, playing really great tennis, smart tennis, moving well, hitting pretty heavy shots.

“Last two matches we played was really tough, tough matches physically and mentally. Even though I won the last one in two sets, it wasn't that easy of a match, and it was a very intense match. Yeah, I'm really looking for another great battle against her.”

Navarro, on playing only two matches on Ashe in her career (the last two): “it's crazy that, you know, I'm able to walk out on Ashe and feel comfortable, because it's definitely not my nature to want to be in the spotlight and seek the attention of a lot of people. So it's kind of crazy just, yeah, my comfort level out there.

“I think I was a little bit overwhelmed maybe at Indian Wells playing on center court. But I think it was so important for me to have those experiences at that stage to, you know, be able to come out on a day like today and feel comfortable on probably the biggest stage in tennis.”



Navarro on Sabalenka’s status as a top player: “She's been on this stage before. She's been in this position before. But I feel like she might feel like she has something to lose, whereas I feel like I have everything to go after. “That's something that I work on a lot, trying to put myself in a position to go after something no matter the match or the opponent.”

Pegula vs Muchova
Head-to-Head: Pegula leads 1-0
Key Stat: 30-year-old Pegula is playing in her maiden Grand Slam semifinal after defeating Iga Swiatek on Wednesday night.

Key Stat # 2: Muchova is the second player from Czech Republic to reach the semifinal of the US Open Women’s Singles winning all her five matches in straight sets after Jana Novotna during the Open Era.

The Matchup How much can we take from Pegula’s first-round victory over Muchova a few weeks ago in Cincinnati, on the ultra speedy hard courts of the Lindner Family Tennis Center?

Hard to say, but easy to recognize the fact that the pair’s second overall meeting will be far more significant.

Pegula, who defeated Iga Swiatek on Wednesday night 6-2, 6-4 to reach her maiden Grand Slam semifinal, will have to come down from cloud 9 and prepare for a crafty, talented Muchova, who is in peak form after winning all of the ten sets she has played in New York.

Pegula will look to push Muchova and keep her from getting into the flow of her athleticism. When the Czech calls the shots on the tennis court she can get her opponents on the string and make them look silly. To avoid this Pegula will have to serve well and return well, which would allow her to play more on her terms and avoid having Muchova dictate with her cleverness.

Muchova will look to use variety to get Pegula out of her comfort zone. The American hits a mean ball when she is grooving so Muchova will look to stretch the court and take Pegula off her baseline as much as possible.



What they’re saying:

Pegula on her movement: “ I definitely think my movement is improved compared to, like, the beginning of this year. I remember in Australia I felt slow and not moving well. Not that I'm going to be, like, a super explosive mover like an Iga or Coco type of thing, but I just didn't feel like I was moving that well.

“That's something I've been working on the last couple of months with the new coaches that I've hired. One of them is really big into the movement around the court, so we kind of focused on that. It's actually, it sounds weird, but it's not something I've really focused on that much throughout my career, just getting faster and stronger and all that stuff, but not as specific. So I think that really helped.”

Pegula on Muchova: “I'm a big fan of hers. I think she's so good, so talented, so skilled as a tennis player, like, so complete. Doesn't have a ton of weaknesses. We played each other for the first time in Cincy, and I always laugh because she should be seeded but she never is. I always see in the draw when she draws somebody good first round, I'm like, oh, she's back, like, floating around in these draws, and I don't want a part of that.”

Muchova on being in a groove: “I'd say it's the feeling and it's as well the confidence when I hit, basically when I'm aggressive on the court and hitting winners down the line, going to the net when I feel confident to do that. When I started to win those points, they kind of, yeah, gives me the good feeling on the court, and then I trust my shots and I would say then it kind of creates my game.”