Karolina

Osaka returns to semis for the first time since 2020, while Amanda Anisimova gets Wimbledon revenge against Iga Swiatek.

Naomi Osaka returned to the US Open semifinals on Wednesday with a 6-4 7-6(3) win over Karolina Muchova, as the four-time Grand Slam champion delivered a battling display to underline her resurgence on the sport’s biggest stage.

Four years after winning the last of her four major titles, the Japanese 23rd seed, who returned last season after a lengthy maternity break, stretched her unbeaten streak in major quarterfinals to 5-0 and booked a clash with Amanda Anisimova on Friday.

“It means so much. I’m surprised I’m not crying,” said Osaka, who only two years ago was watching the semifinals from the stands at Arthur Ashe Stadium.

“I was sitting up there watching and hoping I would have an opportunity to play on this court again, so my dreams are coming true … There’s been so much hard work you guys haven’t seen.

“I’m just grateful to my team. Hopefully, you guys will come and watch my next round.”

Muchova, who had been on court for more than 10 hours over four draining rounds, took treatment in the locker room for an apparent left leg issue after she dropped a tight opening set, but came out firing to break at the start of the next.

She struggled to move at times with heavy strapping on her thigh, but continued to frustrate her opponent with her inventive brand of tennis to break for a 5-4 lead, only for Osaka to wrest back the initiative and go through after the tiebreak.

“It was an incredibly difficult match,” Osaka added.

“She is one of the best players in the world. Every time I play against her, it’s so difficult.

“Last year, she beat me when I had one of my best outfits. I was really upset. I’m just grateful to be here.”

Anisimova avenges Wimbledon embarrassment

Anisimova flipped the script earlier on Wednesday, ousting second seed Iga Swiatek 6-4 6-3 to reach her first US Open semifinal and exact revenge for one of the most brutal defeats in Grand Slam history.

Less than two months after suffering a devastating 6-0 6-0 loss to Swiatek in the Wimbledon final, the American eighth seed won 67 of 121 points to complete the turnaround in 96 minutes on Arthur Ashe Stadium.

“Playing here is so freaking special,” Anisimova said in her on-court interview. “I’ve been having the run of my life here … Today proved everything for me. I can do it.”

The 24-year-old’s transformation from July’s tears to Wednesday’s triumph epitomises tennis’s capacity for redemption.

After watching back the painful Wimbledon footage on Tuesday night, Anisimova admitted she was “slow as hell” in that final but approached this rematch with renewed purpose.

“Today is definitely the most meaningful victory I’ve had in my life,” she told reporters. “I really came out there with, like, not an ounce of fear … I was constantly moving and trying to get myself going.”

Swiatek acknowledged that her opponent’s aggressive return game proved decisive.

“I couldn’t win today’s match playing like that, serving like that, and with Amanda being so aggressive on the returns,” the six-time Grand Slam champion told reporters.

The American dominated on return, converting four of nine break opportunities while Swiatek managed just two breaks from four chances, ending her bid for a seventh Grand Slam title and second US Open crown in the quarterfinals for the second straight year.

The American’s journey from Wimbledon devastation to US Open breakthrough serves as a powerful reminder that in tennis, the greatest comebacks often follow the most crushing defeats.

Should Osaka defeat Anisimova, she will become the first player to reach a Grand Slam final after becoming a mother since Victoria Azarenka made the 2020 US Open showpiece, which Osaka won.

And if the four-time major winner goes all the way in New York, she will be the first player since Kim Clijsters (in 2009, 2010 and 2011) to have won a Slam after giving birth.

Having struggled to put a dent in Muchova’s serve earlier in the first set, Osaka pounced decisively at 5-4 – going 0-40 up and closing out the opener at the second time of asking.

Muchova, who began grimacing because of an issue with her left leg in the sixth game, called for the trainer and received medical attention off court.

She returned with heavy strapping on her thigh, but it didn’t seem to hinder her tennis as she opened the second set with an early break.

Osaka struck back immediately, however, and there was little to separate the pair until a frustrated Osaka conceded serve at 4-4 with a series of unforced errors.

But, as Muchova stepped up to serve and force a deciding set, Osaka regained her composure and bounced back aggressively, breaking to love to level the set.

She took control in the tie-break, opening up a 4-1 lead which proved enough for her to wrap up the victory with a beaming smile.

“It was an incredibly difficult match,” Osaka added in her on-court interview. “She’s one of the best players in the world – every time I play her it’s so difficult.

She joked: “Last year she beat me here when I had one of my best outfits, so I was really upset.”

NEW YORK — Even at age 45, even after two years away from Grand Slam tennis, Venus Williams displayed some big serves and powerful groundstrokes at the U.S. Open on Monday night in front of a supportive crowd at Arthur Ashe Stadium, before losing 6-3, 2-6, 6-1 to Karolina Muchova.

Williams was the oldest singles player at the hard-court tournament since Renee Richards was 47 in 1981.

“She’s such a legend of our sport,” 2023 French Open runner-up Muchova said about seven-time Grand Slam singles champion Williams, adding that it was an honor “to share a court with her.”

In just the fourth match of a comeback that began last month after more than a year off the tour, Williams didn’t exactly get to ease into things Monday: Muchova, a 29-year-old from the Czech Republic, was seeded 11th in New York and made it to the semifinals there in both 2023 — when she lost to eventual champion Coco Gauff in a match interrupted by a climate protest — and 2024.

Karolina Muchova, left, shakes hands with Venus Williams after their first-round match at the U.S. Open on Monday.

(Adam Hunger / Associated Press)

So perhaps it wasn’t surprising that Williams started slowly, ceding 11 of the initial 13 points and falling behind 2-0. With members of the crowd shouting, “Let’s go, Venus!” and roaring after her winners — and her fiance, Andrea Preti, leaping out of his seat — Williams took three games in a row to go ahead 3-2

Muchova grabbed the next four games to claim that set, which ended with Williams hitting four of her evening’s 10 double-faults to get broken.

But Williams, who smacked serves at up to 114 mph and finished with just one fewer winner than Muchova, broke to begin the second set on her way to tying the match.

In the third set, though, as the contest reached two hours, Muchova was simply too good.

When the match ended, Williams left the court with a wave as fans rose to salute someone whose first U.S. Open title arrived a full quarter of a century ago.

More recently, Williams was off the tennis tour for 16 months until entering a tournament in Washington last month, where she won one match each in singles and doubles. She hadn’t competed anywhere since the Miami Open in March 2024, and had surgery for uterine fibroids later last year.

The U.S. Tennis Association awarded wild cards to Williams for both the mixed doubles event last week and singles.

She hasn’t won a match at the U.S. Open in singles since 2019, when she got to the second round. Since then, Williams exited in the first round in 2020, 2022 and 2023, and missed the tournament in 2021 and 2024.

Venus Williams returns a shot to Karolina Muchova during the first round of the U.S. Open on Monday.

(Adam Hunger / Associated Press)

She won singles championships at Flushing Meadows in 2000 and 2001, and another five at Wimbledon.

Since making her professional debut in 1994, Williams also collected 14 Grand Slam trophies in women’s doubles alongside her younger sister, Serena, plus two in mixed doubles, earned a record five Olympic tennis medals and reached No. 1 in the WTA rankings.

Through the years, both siblings transcended their sport and became much more than successful athletes. Serena, who won 23 Grand Slam singles titles, played her last match at the 2022 U.S. Open.

“She’s Venus Williams. She’s so iconic in so many different ways,” said Frances Tiafoe, an American player who won his first-round match in Ashe earlier Monday. “She’s won so much. And to see how much she loves game still at her age is amazing. It’s amazing to still see her out here.”

It was at the U.S. Open more than a decade ago that Williams revealed she had been diagnosed with Sjögren’s syndrome, an energy-sapping auto-immune disease that can cause joint pain.

Some thought she might leave her sport because of that, but she remained a leading figure — on and off the court. To her fans — for years, and certainly on Monday night — it never mattered that she now has exited in the first or second round in each of her past 13 appearances at major tournaments.

When she was asked at the Washington tournament in July why she was still competing, she offered a simple reply: “Why not?”

“I want to be my best, and that’s the expectation I have for myself: to get the best out of me. And that’s all any player can ask for,” Williams said Saturday, the day before the start of singles play at the U.S. Open. “I haven’t played as much as the other players, so it’s a different challenge when you’re dealing with that. So I’m just trying to have fun, stay relaxed and be my personal best.”

Fendrich writes for the Associated Press.

Elsewhere in Dubai, Gauff suffered a third successive defeat as she fell to world number 53 Kessler.

Third seed Gauff, 20, started the year on red-hot form, winning nine matches in a row.

However, since losing to Paula Badosa in the quarter-finals of the Australian Open, Gauff has lost in the second round at the Qatar Open and Dubai Tennis Championships after receiving a bye in the first round at both tournaments.

Kessler saved five of the six break points she faced against her fellow American before wrapping up a 6-4 7-5 victory in one hour and 29 minutes.

It is the first top 10 victory of her career, while the 25-year-old is also into the third round of a WTA 1,000 event for the first time.

World number one Aryna Sabalenka claimed a 6-3 6-4 victory over qualifier Veronika Kudermetova, while second seed Iga Swiatek stormed past two-time major winner Victoria Azarenka in a 6-0 6-2 win.

Jasmine Paolini continued her title defence with a 6-2 7-5 victory over Germany’s Eva Lys, while Ons Jabeur fell to a 7-6 (8-6) 6-4 defeat by American Peyton Stearns.

Sixth seed Elena Rybakina beat Moyuka Uchijima 6-3 6-2 to set up a last-16 meeting with world number 10 Badosa, who won 6-2 6-1 against Elise Mertens.