NEW YORK, NY, USA - Kim Clijsters won her 19th straight match at the US Open on Tuesday night, following Venus Williams into the semifinals with a streaky 64 57 63 victory over Samantha Stosur on Arthur Ashe Stadium.
Clijsters, the No.2 seed, came back 2-4 to win the first set, clinching it on a sensational curling crosscourt passing shot. Stosur, seeded No.5, struck back in the second set, failing to serve the set out at 5-4 but succeeding on her second attempt at 6-5, closing it out on a crisp forehand volley winner.
The third set was scratchy on serve, with the first six games going to the returner - but from 3-all Clijsters grabbed the bull by the horns, holding for 4-3, breaking Stosur for the fourth time for 5-3, then holding again for the match, dusting off the victory with her fifth ace, firing it up the T to seal the deal.
"It has been difficult for me to serve the last few weeks, and obviously the weather conditions didn't help. But I'll just try and remember the last serve I hit today," Clijsters said. "I just stayed focused. She wasn't serving well either. I was taking it one point at a time and trying to remember the good things."
See 20 of the best moments of Kim's first career right here!
Clijsters' win over Stosur was her seventh straight win over a Top 10 player, a streak that began at last year's US Open; it was also her fourth win in four meetings with the Australian, but there was one consolation for the conquered: she had never won a set from Clijsters, not even pushed her to a tie-break.
Stosur had never passed the second round here previously but this year made it all the way to the quarters, playing maybe the match of the tournament in the fourth round, saving four match points to edge Elena Dementieva on Sunday.
"It was the windiest conditions I've played in all week, and probably the worst I've served all week. Put those two things together, and then don't hold serve for the third set, and you lose," Stosur said. "I'm happy to make it to the quarters, by far my best result here, but I'm going to be disappointed. You can't break serve and have chance after chance after chance and blow it in a quarterfinal. It's just too big of an opportunity to let go, and unfortunately that's what I did today."
Next for Clijsters is No.3 seed Venus Williams, who defeated No.6 seed Francesca Schiavone earlier in the evening. Read more about that here.
Clijsters and Williams are tied in their head-to-head, 6-6, although Clijsters has won their last four meetings and routed Williams in their last one, 62 61.
"This is some of the best of Venus I've seen in a while," Clijsters said. "We've had strange matches. In the third sets, I was maybe a little bit physically stronger. She's capable of doing amazing things. I have to be ready."
"We had a great match last year. It was really close. I'm sure that match made a big difference for her, because she went on to win the title," Williams said of her 60 06 64 loss to Clijsters from a year ago. "I'm sure we'll have another really good match-up. I'd like to flip the way it turns out though."
