Swiatek tops Sabalenka in women’s semis | US Open updates
Sep 8, 2022, 2:36 AM | Updated: 8:10 pm
Caroline Garcia, of France, poses for a photo with Ons Jabeur, of Tunisia, before the start of the women's singles semifinals of the U.S. Open tennis championships, Thursday, Sept. 8, 2022, in New York. (AP Photo/John Minchillo)
(AP Photo/John Minchillo)
NEW YORK (AP) — The Latest on the U.S. Open tennis tournament (all times local):
11:05 p.m.
Iga Swiatek has reached the U.S. Open final and will play for her third Grand Slam title.
The No. 1 seed from Poland rallied for a 3-6, 6-1, 6-4 victory over Aryna Sabalenka and will face No. 5 seed Ons Jabeur on Saturday.
Swiatek won her second French Open title this year.
Sabalenka, the No. 6 seed, fell to 0-3 in Grand Slam semifinals.
___
10:15 p.m.
Iga Swiatek has sent the second U.S. Open women’s semifinal to a third set.
The No. 1 seed from Poland won the second set 6-1 after No. 6 seed Aryna Sabalenka took the opener 6-3.
Swiatek turned around the match by breaking Sabalenka’s serve three times in the second set.
Sabalenka is trying to reach her first Grand Slam final. Swiatek has won the French Open twice.
___
9:35 p.n.
Aryna Sabalenka is a set away from her first Grand Slam final.
The No. 6 seed from Belarus won the first set 6-3 against top-ranked Iga Swiatek.
Sabalenka has lost both previous times she reached a major semifinal, including last year at the U.S. Open against eventual runner-up Leylah Fernandez.
The winner will play No. 5 Ons Jabeur on Saturday.
___
8:55 p.m.
Iga Swiatek and Aryna Sabalenka have begun their match that will determine the second women’s finalist.
The top-ranked Swiatek is hoping to add a U.S. Open title to her two French Open championships. The No. 6-seeded Sabalenka has never played for a Grand Slam title, losing in the U.S. Open semifinals last year.
The winner will play No. 5 seed Ons Jabeur on Saturday.
___
8:25 p.m.
Ons Jabeur dominantly advanced to her second straight Grand Slam final, beating Caroline Garcia 6-1, 6-3.
The No. 5 seed from Tunisia will play top-seeded Iga Swiatek or No. 6 Aryna Sabalenka on Saturday.
Jabeur lost in a bid for her first major title at Wimbledon, where she was beaten by Elena Rybakina in three sets in the final.
Garcia, the No 17 seed from France, had won 13 straight matches and hadn’t dropped a set at the U.S. Open.
___
8 p.m.
Ben Bartram has become the first player to win a junior wheelchair match at a Grand Slam tournament.
The 17-year-old from Britain, who is the No. 1 seed in the boys’ wheelchair singles division, beat 15-year-old Ivar van Rijt 6-1, 6-2 on Thursday.
The U.S. Open this year became the first of the four major tournaments to have a junior wheelchair division.
The men’s and women’s fields were also expanded to 16 players. Top seeds Diede de Groot and Shingo Kunieda won their quarterfinal matches Thursday in those events.
___
7:45 p.m.
Ons Jabeur has raced to a surprisingly easy 6-1 lead over Caroline Garcia in the women’s semifinals.
Garcia has won 13 straight matches and hadn’t dropped more than four games in any set during her first five matches in Flushing Meadows.
But the No. 17 seed from France looked overwhelmed in her first Grand Slam semifinal, making 14 unforced errors while winning only 13 points in the 23-minute set.
Jabeur, the No. 5 seed from Tunisia, is bidding for her second straight major final.
___
7:20 p.m.
Ons Jabeur and Caroline Garcia are on the court in the opening match of the women’s semifinals.
The fifth-seeded Jabeur is trying to reach her second straight Grand Slam final. Garcia, seeded 17th, is in a major semifinal for the first time.
That match was preceded by a moment of silence to commemorate the passing of Queen Elizabeth II.
The winner will face either top-ranked Iga Swiatek or No. 6 Aryna Sabalenka for the title.
___
6 p.m.
Rajeev Ram and Joe Salisbury will play for a second straight U.S. Open men’s doubles title after fighting off the Colombian team of Juan Sebastian Cabal and Robert Farah.
The top seeds won 7-5, 4-6, 7-6 (6) in a match that lasted 3 hours, 12 minutes.
That put the American Ram and Britain’s Salisbury a win away from joining only Todd Woodbridge and Mark Woodforde as teams to defend a U.S. Open men’s doubles title in the professional era, dating to 1968. The Hall of Famers from Australia won in 1995 and 1996.
In Friday’s final, Ram and Salisbury will meet the No. 2-seeded team of Wesley Koolhof and Neal Skupski, who downed the third-seeded duo of Marcelo Arevalo and Jean-Julien Rojer 6-4, 7-5.
___
5:30 p.m.
The women’s semifinals take place under the lights of Arthur Ashe Stadium, with Ons Jabeur facing Caroline Garcia in the opening match before top-ranked Iga Swiatek meets Aryna Sabalenka.
Swiatek is the only major champion left, having won her second French Open title this summer. She also reached the Australian Open semifinals and is 19-2 in Grand Slam tournaments this year.
The No. 6-seeded Sabalenka lost last year in the U.S. Open semifinals, which remains her best performance in a major.
Jabeur is bidding for a second straight major final, having made her deepest run yet at Wimbledon. The No. 5 from Tunisia is 5-0 in semifinal matches this season.
In the surging Garcia, she meets a player who has won 13 straight matches. Seeded 17th, the Frenchwoman’s first career Grand Slam appearance will send her back into the top 10 next week.
The U.S. Tennis Association announced there would be a moment of silence before the first semifinal match “to commemorate the passing of Queen Elizabeth II.”
___
More AP coverage of U.S. Open tennis: https://apnews.com/hub/us-open-tennis-championships and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports
Copyright © The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
