US OPEN 2009 RECAP

Sarena Williams had all the history in the world going for in her match against Kim Clijsters at the US Open semifinals. In her career Williams had only lost one match against Clijsters and that was on carpet, not hard court. Also, Serena was the returning champion at Flushing Meadows as she took the US Open title down last year.

But when Clijsters took the first set 6-4 it started to look as though Serena's reign as US Open champion was over.The 2nd set was up for grabs as both players had great difficulty holding serve in the early games. While both players showed exceptional hustle and made skilled passing shots, it was Clijsters who played better overall. Everything Serena was hitting Clijsters seemed to be able to get a racket on, even if getting to the ball required doing the splits.Clijsters' superior play earned her two break points in the 8th game of the set but at that point Serena stepped it up. She forced deuce, gave Clijsters another break point opportunity, and then held to keep the second set on serve. What came in the subsequent games was almost unbelieveable.

In an incredibly bizarre ending to the match with Serena serving down 5-6 (15-30) on her second serve, Serena hit a safety serve into the service area. But the foot fault line judge called a foot fault on Williams and that sent Serena Williams into a tirade where she apparently dropped a couple F-bombs or at least words that had to be muted out in the replay. The foot fault gave Clijsters two match points and a high degree of probability for victory but Serena's temper took her out of the match anyways as she verbally abused the lineswoman.The final will now be between Kim Clijsters of Belgium and Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark who defeated Yanina Wickmayer is less dramatic fashion, 6-3, 6-3.