100th US Open triumph brings Serena on brink of record title; Federer stunned

Serena Williams earned her 100th win at the US Open on Tuesday with a brutal 44-minute demolition of Wang Qiang, firing an ominous warning to rivals in her pursuit of a record-tying 24th Grand Slam title.

In a Wednesday women’s quarter-final match, Belinda Bencic of Switzerland disposed of Donna Vekic of Croatia, winning in straight sets 7-6, 6-3, to enter the semi-finals. The first set was a close affair, both players dropping serve twice. With the set going into a tie break, it was Bencic who prevailed 7-5 to take the set 7-6.

The second set saw Bencic breaking Vekic’s serve twice, in the seventh and ninth games to easily take the set 6-4 and with it the match.

Six-time US Open champion Williams dismantled Chinese 18th seed Wang 6-1, 6-0 in a complete mismatch that was the quickest at this year’s tournament to set up a semi-final clash with Ukrainian trailblazer Elina Svitolina.

Williams brought up a century of US Open wins to move to within one of the all-time leader Chris Evert.

“It’s really unbelievable, literally. From when I first started here, I think I was 16, I didn’t think I would ever get to 100. I didn’t think I would still be out here,” Williams said.

Svitolina meanwhile will attempt to emulate Andrei Medvedev as just the second Ukrainian to play in a Grand Slam final. Medvedev lost the men’s 1999 Roland Garros final in five sets to Andre Agassi.

The 37-year-old American is seeking a 24th major title to match Margaret Court’s longstanding record, and smacked 25 winners against first-time Slam quarter-finalist Wang, who failed to hit a single one.

The 27-year-old Wang was powerless to stop a Williams onslaught at Arthur Ashe Stadium.

“When I play someone who is playing really well, I know I have to either step it up or go home and I wasn’t ready to go home. I had to come out here and play really well,” said Williams, suffering no ill effects from the ankle she rolled in her previous match. The US Open is guaranteed a first-time major finalist and there will be four different Grand Slam winners in a season in the Open era for an unprecedented third year in a row.

Meanwhile, Roger Federer struggled to hide his disappointment after his bid for a first US Open title since 2008 ended abruptly Tuesday with a five-set loss to Grigor Dimitrov in the quarter-finals.

The 38-year-old Swiss had defeated Dimitrov in all seven previous meetings but surrendered a two sets to one lead before sliding to a 3-6, 6-4, 3-6, 6-4, 6-2 defeat.

Federer, a five-time US Open champion, left the court for a private medical timeout to treat his upper back near his neck before the final set but refused to blame injury as the reason for his exit.

“I felt it the whole time. I was able to play with it. My bad not to win,” Federer said. “This is Grigor’s moment and not my body’s moment, so it’s OK.

“It’s how it goes. I tried my best. By far not too bad to give up or anything. Grigor was able to put me away. I fought with what I had.”

Federer was denied on five break points in the 10th game of the fourth set and the 78th-ranked Dimitrov held to force a fifth set, before the Bulgarian broke his rival twice in succession to effectively seal victory. “Had moments that I was in the lead most of the time. Had a chance to come back in the fourth. Start of the fourth wasn’t ideal. Start of the fifth wasn’t ideal. That was running behind. That was tough,” Federer said.

“Just disappointed it’s over because I did feel like I was actually playing really well after a couple of rocky starts.

“It’s just a missed opportunity to some extent that you’re in the lead, you can get through, you have two days off after. It was looking good. But got to take the losses. They’re part of the game.”

Agence France-Presse