It’s safe to say that no sister act has ever been a bigger hit on the New York stage than Venus and Serena Williams. The two marquee-topping champions have combined for a total of eight US Open singles titles, with Serena capturing six and Venus, two. Leading up to the 2022 US Open, Hall of Fame tennis writer Steve Flink is recounting each of those remarkable title runs. In this installment, Flink recalls Serena’s run to her sixth—and final—US Open title.
When Serena Williams came to the US Open in 2014 in search of a third consecutive crown, the 32-year-old icon was playing essentially the same brand of tennis that she had produced so professionally across the previous two years. Williams had been eager and opportunistic that entire 2014 season, collecting titles with sweeping self-assurance, dismissing central rivals comprehensively when she was at her best, pushing herself to the hilt wherever she competed.
In fact, by the time she arrived in New York, Williams had already secured five singles titles on the WTA tour. The first one was in Brisbane at the start of the year, where she beat her esteemed rival Victoria Azarenka in the final. A few months later in Miami she was victorious again, stopping the tenacious Li Na in the final. At the Italian Open in Rome on the clay, she accounted for Ana Ivanovic and Sara Errani at the end to claim another crown. And then over the summer en route to Flushing Meadows, Williams took two hard-court titles, winning Stanford over the left-handed German Angelique Kerber and Cincinnati over Ivanovic.
How could Williams complain about a year like that? To be sure, Williams had been even more prolific the season before on her way to the Open, winning eight tournaments over that span. But the fact remained that her success in 2014 remained highly impressive.
And yet, Williams was disconcerted about one aspect of her record. She had not fared well in the majors at all, losing to Ivanovic in the round of 16 at the Australian Open, bowing against the emerging Spaniard Garbiñe Muguruza in the second round at Roland Garros, and falling in the third round of Wimbledon against the guileful Frenchwoman Alizé Cornet. Not advancing beyond the round of 16 in the first three majors of 2014 was, to say the least, irksome to Williams.
That string of stinging defeats at the Grand Slam events sent Williams into the US Open on a crusade. It was her last chance to win a major that year and the only way she could make 2014 worthwhile from her standpoint as an estimable champion. She wanted to win this US Open very badly, and knew she was playing the kind of tennis that could turn that dream into reality.
The top-seeded Williams was blazing from the beginning, casting aside one opponent after another almost regally. She was firing away on all fronts without making many foolish errors, serving as only she could with both uncanny power and unimaginable precision, and taking control from the backcourt with remarkable pace and depth. Williams was raring to go from the time she stepped on court for her first-round match against left-handed countrywoman Taylor Townsend, a wild card ranked No. 103 in the world.
Williams easily handled the 18-year-old Townsend 6-3, 6-1 in an evening duel, taking eight of nine games from 4-3 in the first set. In a second round meeting against another young American, Vania King, Williams was even more ruthlessly competitive, leaving no stone unturned in a 6-1, 6-0 win. With the wind blowing capriciously, Williams double faulted three times in one game but her brief discomfort hardly mattered. Next up against Varvara Lepchenko, a 28-year-old lefty ranked No. 52. Lepchenko produced more winners and aces than Williams and tested the world No. 1 in both sets, and yet in the end, she was soundly beaten by a better match player, 6-3, 6-3.
The Estonian Kaia Kanepi—ranked 50th and a free-wheeling player with a singular capacity to severely break up the rhythm of her adversaries—was next on the agenda for Williams, but once more she found her range when it mattered the most and came away with another 6-3, 6-3 victory for a place in the quarterfinals.
Having moved through four matches with such certitude and authority, Williams was more than ready for the homestretch. There was a growing feeling among her peers and the public that she was not going to lose to anyone. Williams was utterly motivated to succeed, aggravated that she had done such subpar work at the three previous majors, and in the best possible frame of mind to get the job done on the hard courts in her home country.
Meeting the Italian baseline practitioner Flavia Pennetta in the quarterfinals, Williams took her game up a notch to meet the moment. The No. 11 seed Pennetta would startlingly win the US Open the following year. But in this showdown, she was ultimately overwhelmed and outplayed by Williams, who was far too potent from the baseline and on serve.
At the outset, however, Pennetta was magnificent. Her spectacular returns were elegantly produced, her ground game letter perfect, her service games played with discipline and purpose. The Italian broke serve twice on her way to a 3-0 first set lead. The American was perplexed by how skillfully Pennetta was reading her serve.
And yet, as she has done so frequently when she is backed into a corner, Williams battled her way out of it and soon moved out of danger. She swept six games in a row to seal the first set and never looked back, securing 12 of the last 14 games and winning 6-3, 6-2, reaching the penultimate round with a first-rate performance.
Closing in on the crown, Williams next took on No. 17 seed Ekaterina Makarova, her third left-handed opponent of the tournament. She put on a stellar display from start to finish, unleashing 24 winners (four times as many as Makarova). She won 77% of her first-serve points and 65% on her second delivery. Only once across two sets did she lose her serve. The gifted Makarova had won her only previous confrontation with Williams in Melbourne at the 2012 Australian Open, but in New York it was a different set of circumstances for Makarova and a much better-prepared Williams, who won with relative ease, 6-1, 6-3.
And so Williams found herself in an eighth US Open final and her fourth in a row. On the other side of the net stood her good friend Caroline Wozniacki, a popular Danish player who was runner-up to Kim Clijsters at the 2009 US Open as well as finishing 2010 and 2011 at No. 1 in the world. Wozniacki was the stylistic opposite of Williams, operating from the baseline methodically, playing the percentages faithfully, finding success regularly with a recipe based on a clever kind of caution. Her ball control was exemplary, her return of serve solid and consistent, her point construction strikingly intelligent.
Certainly, Wozniacki was not going to beat herself, but could she defeat Williams, who had prevailed in eight of their nine head to head meetings?
Over the summer on the hard courts, Wozniacki had pushed Williams to the hilt in two bruising hard-court duels at Montreal and Cincinnati. Williams rallied robustly to beat Wozniacki 4-6, 7-5 7-5 in the quarterfinals of Montreal and again came from behind to topple the Dane 2-6, 6-2, 6-4 in the semifinals of Cincinnati.
But this was another situation altogether at the US Open. Performing in Arthur Ashe Stadium with the fans thirsting for the American to come through once more at a place where she had so often flourished, Williams was highly-charged and determined to succeed on her own terms. She had been taken to three sets the previous two years in the finals by Victoria Azarenka, but this time around her overriding goal was to be simultaneously ultra-aggressive and unrelentingly consistent. She sorely wanted to stop Wozniacki in straight sets.
Williams was broken in two of her first three service games in the wind but still was ahead 3-2. She bolted to 5-2 from there and closed out the first set unhesitatingly, lacing a backhand winner down the line to close it out 6-3. Entirely comfortable in the front-runner’s role, Williams went ahead 2-0 in the second set and never looked back. She did not lose her serve and kept constant pressure on Wozniacki, keeping her adversary on the run ceaselessly with a barrage of big hitting, coming away with a 6-3, 6-3 triumph.
By virtue of that victory, Williams tied Chris Evert’s Open Era women’s record of six singles titles, and, in turn, put herself on equal ground with Evert and Martina Navratilova by claiming an 18th major title. Williams' win over Wozniacki was her 18th in 22 major finals across her sterling career.
For the first time ever at a major, she had established herself as the singles champion three years in a row. That was no mean feat. Even more impressive, Williams not only took the title without losing a set in seven matches, but she was never pushed beyond 6-3 in any set. That was a feat she had never before realized before at a Grand Slam tournament, and one that she would not equal again. To be sure, Wozniacki at No. 10 was the highest seeded player that Williams met at the Open. But Serena Williams at the 2014 US Open was impenetrable.
It seemed entirely possible then that Williams would win the Open at least two or three more times. But that, surprisingly, was not the case, despite the fact that she would claim five more majors elsewhere in the years ahead.
Williams came ever-so-close in New York in 2015 when she reached the semifinals and faced the creative Italian Roberta Vinci, a marvelous finesse player who frequently kept Williams off balance. Williams was ahead 2-0 in the third set but lost that match in three sets. Williams lost to Karolina Pliskova in the 2016 semifinals, Naomi Osaka in the 2018 final and Bianca Andreescu in 2019 final. A year later, Williams made it to the penultimate round but, despite winning the first set, bowed out against Azarenka.
Her last major title triumph was in 2017 at the Australian Open, when she surpassed Graf and took a 23rd “Big Four” prize despite being in the early stages of a pregnancy. Only Margaret Court (with 24) has collected more of the game’s preeminent championships.
The 2022 US Open will likely be her final appearance at Flushing Meadows, 23 years after she won her first title here. Historians will debate whether or not she is the greatest player of all time, but this much is certain: Williams has been a singularly charismatic and consequential athlete who has transformed women’s tennis, inspired legions of fans in every corner of the globe, and dynamically changed the world of sports.
