Madison Keys defeated Estonian Kaia Kanepi 6-3 and 6-3 in the last quarterfinals match of the US Open on Wednesday securing an All-American semifinal at the last Grand Slam of the year being held in New York.
The results guarantee that the women’s tournament will have an All-American final for the first time since 2002 when Serena Williams defeated her oldest sister Venus to win her second US Open trophy.
Although the youngest Williams is missing the tournament due to the birth of her first daughter, her fellow American players are representing the country exceptionally well.
Americans Coco Vandeweghe, Venus Williams and Sloane Stephens all won their quarterfinals matches and were waiting to see if Keys would join them in the semis to make it the first All-American US Open Women’s semifinals for the first time in 36 years.
On Tuesday Venus Williams defeated Czech Petra Kvitova 6-3, 3-6 and 7-6 and Sloane Stephen defeated Latvian Anastasija Sevastova 6-3, 3-6 and 7-6.
And yesterday before Keys victory, Vandeweghe defeated Czech Karolina Pliskova, the number one ranked player in the world, 7-6 and 6-3.
This is the third time in the Open Era that the US Open Women have four American semifinalists and the fourth time ever that the US Open semifinals feature four American players.
In 1979 the Americans dominated the US Open with both semifinals featuring four American players.
That year the men’s semifinals saw American Vitas Gerulaitis defeating Roscoe Tanner and John McEnroe defeating Jimmy Connors. In the final McEnroe defeated Gerulaitis 7-5, 6-3 and 6-3.
That has been the only occasion since 1968 in which the United States saw four men monopolize the US Open semifinals.
In the 1979 women’s semifinals Chris Evert beat Billie Jean King and Tracy Austin defeated Martina Navratilova. Austin bested Evert 6-4 and 6-3 in the final.
The second time four American women reached the US Open semifinals was in 1981 when Navratilova defeated Evert 7-5, 4-6 and 6-4, while Tracy Austin defeated Barbara Potter 6-1 and 6-3. Austin won the trophy after defeating Navratilova in the final by a score of 1-6, 7-6 and 7-6.
