This year, as we celebrate the 50th anniversary of the US Open, we’re counting down the 50 most memorable moments in the history of America’s Grand Slam. Today, we take a look back at No. 17.
All through the 2015 season, Serena Williams was consumed with history. She opened that campaign entirely on her own terms, taking the Australian Open with a hard-fought triumph over Maria Sharapova. On she went to Roland Garros, and despite feeling ill most of that tournament, she was victorious on the red clay in Paris, fending off southpaw Lucie Safarova in the final. At Wimbledon, she was on song, stopping Garbiñe Muguruza in the final on the lawns at the All England Club.
Three down, one to go in her bid for a sweep of the four majors. Serena headed to Flushing Meadows with immense historical weight on her shoulders. She was in jeopardy against Bethanie Mattek-Sands in the third round but pulled away, 3-6, 7-5, 6-0. In the quarterfinals, she accounted for her sister Venus in three sets under the lights, and now she was closing in on the first calendar-year Grand Slam since Steffi Graf realized the feat in 1988. When the No. 26 seed Flavia Pennetta upset No. 2 seed Simona Halep in the first semifinal, Williams seemed almost certain to establish herself as only the sixth player in tennis history to secure a Grand Slam.
Serena faced world No. 43 Roberta Vinci in her semifinal, walking on court with a 4-0 career head-to-head advantage over her adversary. She was firing away on all cylinders in winning the first set, sweeping 21 of the last 28 points regally. The second set was locked at 2-2, but suddenly Williams lost steam, and soon she dropped the set. Yet the 33-year-old American built a 2-0, 40-30 lead in the third set. Had she held there, victory would have been within her grasp. But Williams faltered.
Vinci’s tactical wizardry was astonishing. Her sliced backhand broke up Serena’s, and she came forward unhesitatingly to win, 2-6, 6-4, 6-4. Down the stretch, Williams’ feet were frozen, her mind muddled, her vision clouded. She was acutely aware of how close she was to joining Don Budge (1938), Maureen Connolly (1953), Rod Laver (1962 and 1969), Margaret Court (1970) and Graf (1988) as winners of the Grand Slam. Her sense of history had crippled her chances to put herself in elite company.
Serena Williams had genuinely wanted to make herself a Grand Slammer, but this was one of those days when she got in her own way and succumbed to extreme apprehension. So frequently over the years, Williams had seemed impenetrable, but against Vinci, with so much riding on the outcome and such an opportunity awaiting her, knowing this was confronting history of a kind she might never see again, Serena demonstrated that she was, after all, human.
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