America's Serena Williams is one step away from going in the history book, the 37-year-old mother booked her place in the ongoing US Open final, her 10th US Open final and her 33rd Grand Slams'. If Serena emerges victorious at the Arthur Ashe Stadium come Saturday, She'll equal Australia's Margaret Court as only the 2 tennis players, male or female to amass 24 Grand Slam titles. However, standing in her way is the Canadian teenage sensation Bianca Andreescu, who is playing in her 1st ever Grand Slam final.
Serena Williams needs no introduction in world's Lawn Tennis, only Margaret Court has more Grand Slam title(24) than the American(23), however, Serena is undoubtedly the best female tennis player of the Open era. Having won her 1st ever Grand Slam title at the US Open in 1999 as a teenager, she has gone on to win 5 further titles at Flushing Meadows and 23-Grand-Slam totals [Australian(7), Wimbledon(7), US(6) & French(3)]. The 37-year-old became a mother in September 2017(a year she won her last Grand Slam title at the Aus Open) and motherhood had understandably taken a toll on her, she had lost the 3 Grand Slam finals she'd played in, 2018 Wimbledon 3-6, 3-6 loss to German Angelique Keber, 2018 US Open ill-natured 2-6, 4-6 loss to Japan's Naomi Osaka and last Wimbledon 2-6, 2-6 loss to Romania's Simona Halep.
Serena Williams' route to the final includes the round of 128 straight-set 6-1, 6-1 win over Russia's Maria Sharapova, Serena then dropped her 1st and only set of the tournament so far in a round of 64's 5-7, 6-3, 6-1 win over countrywoman 17-year-old Caty McNally. Serena followed up with consecutive straight-set wins in the round of 32 and 16, 6-3, 6-2 over Czech's Karolina Muchova and 6-3, 6-4 over Croatia's Petra Martic(22). A crushing quarterfinal 6-1, 6-0 win over China's Wang Qiang(18) was soon followed with a semifinal 6-3, 6-1 win over Ukrainian's Elina Svitolina(5).
Serena now faces 15th seed Bianca Adreescu in the Saturday final, a potential banana peel for the 6 time US Open champion if I may add, as the teenager has proven all-tournament to be a worthy challenger, having brushed aside former world number 1 and 2018 Australian Open champion, Denmark's Caroline Wozniacki earlier in her draws. Andreescu followed her quarterfinal 3-6, 6-2, 6-3 triumph over Belgium's Elise Mertens(25) with the semifinal 7(7)-(3)6, 7-5 victory over Swiss' Belinda Bencic.
If Serena Williams could pull off a victory one Saturday, she'll join an elite trio of LXM(League of Extra-ordinary Mothers) to have won the Grand Slam title after given birth, they include Australia's Margaret Court who won all but Wimbledon Grand Slams in 1973, having giving birth to her 1st child in March 1972. Another Australian Evonne Goolagong won the 1978 Australian Open, just 7 months after the birth of her daughter(May 1977), and the 3rd mother on the list was Belgians Kim Clijsters, she won the US Open in 2009 after the birth of her child in 2008.
An eagerly anticipated final at Flushing Meadows come Saturday, hopefully, it will not end in an acrimonious nature of last year's final( a furious Serena's outburst against the Umpire Carlos Ramos in the game against Naomi Osaka).
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