The mighty Serena logs 100 U.S. Open match wins

💯 wins in Flushing Meadows...@serenawilliams defeats Wang 6-1, 6-0 and storms into the semifinals!#USOpen pic.twitter.com/cOMsS5bD0G

— US Open Tennis (@usopen) September 4, 2019

It took Serena Williams just 44 minutes to defeat Wang Qiang 6-1, 6-0 in tomight's U.S. Open quarterfinal match. Wang is a very good player, but there was nothing she could do about Williams. The 8th seed hit 25 winners (Wang hit zero winners), and had a first serve win percentage of 90. Case closed.

Williams' next opponent will be 5th seed Elina Svitolina, who defeated Jo Konta 6-4, 6-4 earlier today. Williams is 4-1 against Svitolina, and 2-1 against her on hard courts. Until this year, Svitolina had never gotten beyond the quarterfinals of a major, despite her very winning ways on the tour. But she made it to the semifinals at Wimbledon (she was defeated by eventual champion Simona Halep), and now she has made it to the semifinals in New York.

Svitolina will have her work cut out for her with Williams, who is playing at peak form, and who thrives at majors. However, the Ukrainian player is highly unlikely to be intimidated by either the opponent or the occasion, and she could give Williams a fight.

Today, when Pam Shriver interviewed Svitolina, she twice referred to "the Ukraine." This is an ongoing problem with both Tennis Channel and ESPN commentators and interviewers. A couple of years ago some of us corrected Leif Shiras, who then Tweeted a lame, self-serving "apology," then went on to repeatedly refer to the country as "the Ukraine."

They are not alone. Both guest Rep. Maxine Waters and host Andrea Mitchell on MSNBC have recently insulted the country in this way. The Soviet Union fell a long time ago, but I should lower my expectations (after all, people are still calling flight attendants "stewardesses").

Words matter!


Tomorrow's seminfals will feature Belina Bencic (13) vs. Donna Vekic (23) and Bianca Anreescu (15) vs. Elise Mertens (25).

 In doubles, top seeds Timea Babos and Kiki Mladenovic were upset by 8th seeds Vika Azarenka and Ash Barty.