Sunday, Final
[28] Serena Williams (USA #27) vs. [9] Samantha Stosur (AUS #10)
Head-to-Head: Williams leads 4-2
She won't go in as favorite, but if anyone can stop the Serena Express, Stosur can. Although Williams was very efficient when they met at Toronto last month, they've split wins at Grand Slam events; Stosur's other win came on hardcourts at Stanford in 2009, and she also held a bunch of match points in Sydney the same year. What's more, the experience of playing the final at Roland Garros in 2010 can only stand the rejuvenated and increasingly confident Aussie in good stead; in reaching the final she's spent four more hours on court (11 hours 28 minutes) than Serena has, but it's been time well spent. No Australian woman has reached the final of the US Open since Wendy Turnbull in 1977, with Margaret Court the most recent winner, in 1973. Should Stosur pull off an upset, she'll be the 40th woman to win one of the Big Four titles in the Open Era. Win or lose, she is projected to rank No.7 on Monday.
Twelve years after she beat Martina Hingis for her first US Open crown in 1999, Serena is gunning to join Court, Billie Jean King, Chris Evert, Martina Navratilova and Steffi Graf as the only women to have won the US Open at least four times. With an impressive 13-3 record in major finals to date, it would be her 14th major title overall. Having won the Olympus US Open Series Bonus Challenge, she is also playing for a $1 million bonus, on top of the usual prize money (and is already guaranteed an extra $500,000 by making it this far). And, having begun the summer ranked outside the Top 100, she would likely rise to No.12 in the world (No.14 should she finish runner-up). If she serves as well as she has all fortnight - she has issued a tournament-leading 52 aces - she will be extremely hard to stop.
Whatever happens on Sunday evening, the winner will be only the fourth player ranked outside the Top 5 to win the US Open (No.7 Serena in 1999, No.9 Svetlana Kuznetsova in 2004, unranked Kim Clijsters in 2009) and the oldest US Open champion since Martina Navratilova (30 years, 331 days) in 1987. At 29 years, 350 days, Williams is three days older than when Schiavone won the French Open last year; she is bidding to be the oldest Grand Slam champion since Graf was victorious in Paris in 1999. Together, Williams and Stosur (27 years, 164 days) combine for the second-oldest US Open final in the Open Era after Navratilova (27 years, 327 days) defeated Evert (29 years, 254 days) in 1984. That match was a gripping classic; it will only be fitting if the combatants give New York something to remember today.
