37-year-old edges Kvitova to setup all-American last-4 clash with Sloane
When her work was done, her first trip to the US Open semifinals since 2010 secured, if just barely, Venus Williams sat in her sideline chair and beamed.
Williams reached her third major semifinal of the season — something she last did 15 years ago — by edging two-time Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova 6-3, 3-6, 7-6 (2) on Tuesday night to a soundtrack of thunderous partisan support under a closed roof at Arthur Ashe Stadium.
"Definitely felt like a special match. No easy moments, not easy to hold serve or break serve," Williams said. "This match meant a lot to me, obviously, playing at home and, of course, it being a major."
The 37-year-old Williams, who won titles at Flushing Meadows way back in 2000 and 2001, trailed 3-1 in the third set before digging out of the hole with a little help: Kvitova's eighth double-fault handed over the break that made it 3-all.
And Kvitova's ninth double-fault got Williams to match point in the tiebreaker.
"Sometimes you have opportunities, and sometimes you take them and you don't, but it's not like you get opportunity after opportunity after opportunity in these sorts of matches," Williams said. "You have to take the ones you have."
She will face unseeded Sloane Stephens on Thursday in the first all-American women's semifinal in New York since 2002. Stephens advanced earlier Tuesday with a 6-3, 3-6, 7-6 (4) victory over 16th-seeded Anastasija Sevastova of latvia. It is Stephens' deepest run at any major since 2013 and the apex of a recovery from foot surgery in January.
There could be another US vs US semifinal on the other side of the draw: 15th-seeded Madison Keys and 20th-seeded CoCo Vandeweghe play their quarterfinals Wednesday.
"It's been a great two weeks for American tennis. Seeing all the American players in the draw and all of them advancing so deep and competing so well," Williams said. "It's great to see this resurgence, and I hope it can continue."
Kvitova, seeded 13th, was hoping to prolong her comeback from a knife attack less than nine months ago by reaching the first US Open semifinal of her career. She needed surgery on her racket-holding hand after she was cut by an intruder at her home in the Czech Republic in December. She returned to the tour at the French Open in May, losing in the second round there and at Wimbledon.
Kvitova has said she still does not have full strength in her left hand. But she was often at her powerful best against No 9 Williams, especially in the last two sets, repeatedly delivering big, flat forehands.
Neither woman played with a ton of subtlety, mainly trading stinging groundstrokes from the baseline on exchanges that grew in intensity as the 2-hour, 34-minute encounter went along.
"I had my chances," Kvitova said. "Kind of."
Williams, who revealed in 2011 she had been diagnosed with an energy-sapping autoimmune disease, is the oldest women's semifinalist in New York in the Open era, which dates to 1968.
In the men's quarterfinals, No 12 Pablo Carreno Busta of Spain and No 28 Kevin Anderson of South Africa each advanced to the final four at a Grand Slam tournament for the first time.
Anderson got past 17th-seeded Sam Querrey of the United States 7-6 (5), 6-7 (9), 6-3, 7-6 (7) in a match that ended shortly before 2 am Wednesday. Much, much earlier, Carreno Busta of Spain had no trouble beating No 29 Diego Schwartzman of Argentina 6-4, 6-4, 6-2. It was Carreno Busta's first match of the tournament against an opponent who was not a qualifier.
Coco 3rd American women in semis
CoCo Vandeweghe made it three Americans into the US Open women's semifinals, beating top-seeded Karolina Pliskova 7-6 (4), 6-3 on Wednesday.
The 20th-seeded Vandeweghe matched her best result in a Grand Slam tournament, having also reached the semifinals of the Australian Open in January before falling to Venus Williams.
The Americans haven't had all four semifinalists at the US Open since 1981, when Tracy Austin beat Martina Navratilova for the title. Chris Evert and Barbara Potter also made the semifinals.
Vandeweghe raced to a 3-0 lead in the first-set tiebreaker, then got an early break in the second set on her way to 3-1 lead, frustrating last year's runner-up with her powerful shots. Pliskova needed to get back to the final to remain atop the WTA rankings. She will be replaced on Monday by Wimbledon champion Garbine Muguruza.