Williams and Wozniacki to play in U.S. Open final

It took her five years, but Caroline Wozniacki is back in the U.S. Open singles final--just as fit, just as fast, but with a bigger game. Wozniacki won her semifinal today when Peng Shuai had to retire with heat illness. It wasn't a pretty sight, what happened to Peng, and it put a terrible end to what had been a marvelous run for the Chinese player.

Peng's problems began when she served for the first set and was broken. The set went to a tiebreak, which Wozniacki won handily. Down a break at 2-4 in the second set, Peng began to visibly suffer with cramping. She was later diagnosed with heat illness--I'm going to skip the controversy that ensued because I just don't feel like dealing with it--and, despite trying to stay in the match, she had to retire at 6-7, 3-4. Peng has had problems with the heat before. Some players, no matter what they do, are very sensitive to heat and humidity.

I hope that, at some point, viewers will remember that the first set was very close up until the tiebreak.

The second semifinal wasn't any more satisfying in terms of exciting tennis. Serena Williams pretty much ran over a sluggish, error-prone Ekaterina Makarova (ah, yes--that Makarova), though the Russian did "wake up" toward the end. But it was too late. Williams won 6-1, 6-3, and advanced to her fourth U.S. Open final in a row.

Top seed Yui Kamiji and 2nd seed Aniek Van Koot advanced to the final in women's wheelchair singles, defeating Jiske Griffoen and Marjolein Buis, respectively. 3rd seed Iryna Shymanovich and 4th seed Tornado Alicia Black were both upset in the junior quarterfinals.