US Open Tennis 2015 Results: Scores, Highlights, Reaction from Wednesday Night
No. 2 seed Simona Halep proved her mettle with a hard-fought 6-3, 4-6, 6-4 win over No. 20 Victoria Azarenka on Wednesday night. The win launched Halep into the semifinals of the 2015 U.S. Open.
According to WTA Insider, Halep turned to a little-used weapon in her arsenal to get the victory.
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Azarenka seemed intent upon making Halep beat her with the backhand. Repeatedly, the 23-year-old Romanian did just that. She hit 40 winners in all and made just 19 unforced errors compared to 42 miscues for Azarenka.
Halep will face No. 26 Flavia Pennetta in the semifinals on Thursday. Pennetta pulled an upset over No. 5 Petra Kvitova 4-6, 6-4, 6-2. After struggling with her serve in the first set, Pennetta found her groove and earned two break points in both the second and third sets to topple Kvitova.
Halep did win her most recent match versus Pennetta, but overall, the latter owns a 3-1 edge in the series. Per WTA Insider, Pennetta is expecting a long and grueling match on Thursday:
On the men's side, No. 2 Roger Federer continues to cruise. He smashed Richard Gasquet 6-3, 6-3, 6-1 in a match that only took 87 minutes to complete. Federer is showing no signs of slowing down. He hit 16 aces in the match and still hasn't lost a set in the tournament.
The 34-year-old Federer is a marvel.
At an age when most of the greats were a mere shell of themselves, Federer looks almost as good as he did when he was in his prime.
Per Alex Sharp of Wimbledon.com, Federer said this after his latest triumph: "Maybe at my age to run through five opponents the way I have done here at the U.S. Open, I don't consider that normal, even though I expect it in some ways for myself to come out and play well. I've played so well over the last one-and-a-half years. I don't feel like I'm as old as I am. I still feel young."
Federer will face his Swiss countryman and No. 5 seed Stan Wawrinka in the semifinals on Friday. The latter advanced in much the same fashion as Federer in his match on Wednesday. Wawrinka handed No. 15 Kevin Anderson a 6-4, 6-4, 6-0 defeat in just under two hours.
It all starts for Wawrinka early in his matches. Based on this stat from ESPN Stats and Info, Federer better take the opening set if he's to have any chance:
While Anderson had nine aces in the match, Wawrinka didn't seem to have a great deal of trouble with the South African's big serve. Wawrinka broke Anderson five times in eight opportunities in the match.
Federer and Wawrinka have played 17 times in their careers, with the former winning 14 of those matches. In their most recent match, Wawrinka bested Fed 6-4, 6-3, 7-6 in the quarterfinals of the French Open. Wawrinka went on to win at Roland Garros.
We're down to the last few days of the sport's final Grand Slam of the year. Keep checking back to Bleacher Report for the latest scores, news and recaps of the remaining matches.
All match stats per USOpen.org
Head-to-head numbers per Wettpoint
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