Venus Williams produced an epic showing to get past Petra Kvitova in the quarter finals of the US Open this week. Veteran Williams was the slower starter of the two but managed to turn around the first set as Kvitova struggled to find her range. It was a different story in the second with Kvitova taking the set and looking the stronger of the two. But Williams wouldn’t lie down and took the match in a final set tie break.
The crowd probably played its part too with heavy support for Williams, especially as she suffered a break early in the deciding set. So now she goes into battle with fellow American Sloane Stephens for a place in the final of the US Open. If Venus makes it, it will be the third Grand Slam final of the year and the last time she achieved that was back in 2002. The last Grand Slam title win for Williams was at Wimbledon 2008 and her two US Open titles were won back to back in 2000 and 2001.
She is probably going to have another epic scrape on her hands against Stephens who battled her way to the final four with a three set victory over Anastasija Sevastova. She has been taken to three sets in three of her five matches at Flushing Meadows this season so it is worth looking at three sets for a price of 11/8 with bet365. Stephens goes as the 13/10 underdog at bet365 to produce the win, with Williams trading at 8/13 odds-on.
This will be just the third match between the two Americans. The first of those was in Miami back in 2013 which Stephens won and then again the underdog triumphed when they met at the France Open in the first round of the 2015 edition. Neither player has won a WTA title this year and for Stephens, this has been something of a remarkable run because she had foot surgery in January and only started her comeback at Wimbledon where she lost in the first round.
Stephens has never been beyond the fourth round at the US Open before so her being in the final four is a huge surprise. Her best ever run in a Grand Slam prior to this was a semi final loss at the Australian Open back in 2013. She hadn’t been past the fourth round of any of the last 13 Grand Slam appearances before Flushing Meadows this year. Can she pull off the win though?
Remarkably Williams just wouldn’t tire against Kvitova but that enduring game in the last round has to have taken something out of her and while she was challenged on her serve a lot by Kvitova, the veteran goes as favourite here and a Williams 2- result in set betting at bet365 returns a price of 3/1 which looks great.
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