Serena Williams falls; Victoria Azarenka, Naomi Osaka to play in US Open final

NEW YORK -- With  Serena Williams hobbled by an ankle injury, two-time major champion  Victoria Azarenka rallied to a 1-6, 6-3, 6-3 victory Thursday night to advance to the US Open final.

The unseeded Azarenka will face  Naomi Osaka, who won the other semifinal 7-6 (1), 3-6, 6-3 over American Jennifer Brady.

Williams needed a medical timeout after hurting her left ankle in the third set, trailing 1-0. She hunched over in pain after Azarenka hit a winner, then was visited by a trainer at her chair. She had the ankle taped and then returned to have her serve broken and fall behind 2-0.

After easily winning the first set, it seemed that Williams might have a rare easy time during this tournament, but Azarenka fought to even the match in the second set, forcing Williams to play a third set for the fourth consecutive match.

Williams, a 23-time Grand Slam champion, beat Arazenka in three-setters in both the 2012 and 2013 US Open final.

The third-seeded Williams was trying to win a 24th Grand Slam singles final, which would have tied Margaret Court's record. She lost in the US Open final the past two years, falling in 2018 to Osaka. 

Earlier, Osaka got a little help from a fortunate net cord and an incorrect line call before finally getting the better of Brady.

Osaka, still just 22, is one victory away from a third Grand Slam title.

Osaka finally surged ahead midway through the final set with the only service break she would get Thursday night -- and the only one she would need -- to beat Brady. She returns to the final at Flushing Meadows two years after winning the championship.

The match was played with the retractable cover at Arthur Ashe Stadium shut, and rain loudly pelted the roof. That also created an indoor environment conducive to the clean hitting both women produced, the thud of racket on ball echoing off thousands of empty blue seats at a tournament closed to spectators because of the coronavirus pandemic.

"It means a lot for me. I kind of consider New York my second home," said Osaka, who was born in Japan and moved to the United States as a child. "I kind of love the atmosphere, even though there's no people here. I feel like this court kind of suits me well."

It suited both players just fine for most of the high-quality semifinal.

Osaka served at up to 120 mph; Brady reached 117 mph. And they pounded the ball once it was in play, too, particularly off the forehand side.

"I just felt like I was sticking it out. It felt like we were trading serves," Osaka said. "I tried to adjust a little bit on her serve in the third set so maybe that helped."

They combined for 70 winners -- 35 apiece -- to just 42 unforced errors, each as good as the other, and it took a bit of luck to swing things after 1 hour, 45 minutes.

That's when, at 2-1 in the third set, Osaka earned her first break point with a backhand that clipped the net tape and trickled over. She was able to convert the chance when she hit a deep return of a 110 mph serve and Brady's backhand in response was called long -- although a television replay showed it actually caught a piece of the back of the baseline.

Brady did not challenge the ruling.

Ashe is one of only two courts at the US Open using line judges this year; to reduce the number of people on site, the tournament used electronic line-calling in the other arenas.

The opening set of the first women's semifinal came down to the tiebreaker and Osaka was superior, maybe owing to her greater amount of experience in such situations.

She didn't make a single error -- Brady's lone point arrived via an ace -- and coolly closed it out with a 120 mph ace.

That was the first set ceded by Brady in the two-week tournament, but she also hadn't faced anyone the caliber of Osaka, whose résumé also includes the 2019 Australian Open trophy and status as the first Asian tennis player to be ranked No. 1.

In the second set, though, it was Osaka who blinked, and Brady who collected the first break of the evening. She went ahead 5-3 when Osaka missed a forehand on a 19-stroke exchange, then served it out.

Heady stuff for Brady, a 25-year-old from Pennsylvania who never had been past the fourth round of a Grand Slam tournament before this week.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.