US Open Tennis 2016 Results: Thursday Winners, Scores, Stats and Draw Update

The U.S. Open women's final is set with one notable name who will not be competing for a title.

Top-seeded Serena Williams was upset by Karolina Pliskova in the semifinals, causing the American to drop out of the No. 1 spot in the world rankings for the first time in 186 weeks, according to SportsCenter. 

The new top player will be Angelique Kerber, who will face Pliskova in the finals after dispatching Caroline Wozniacki in straight sets in the second semifinal.

Follow along for a recap of what ended up being a dramatic night of action from Arthur Ashe Stadium.

Karolina Pliskova def. Serena Williams; 6-2, 7-6 (5)

TIMOTHY A. CLARY/Getty Images

In a match between two of the best servers in women's tennis, Pliskova was the better performer on the day to pull off the shocker.

The Czech player won 84 percent of her first serves, earned seven aces and faced only a single break point in the entire match. Meanwhile, Williams struggled with her accuracy (53 percent of first serves in play and six double-faults) while being broken three times.

Jane McManus of ESPN.com did a great job of summing up Williams' inconsistency:

Pliskova came out with about as strong of a start as you could hope for against an elite player like Williams, earning a break in the third game to go up 2-1 and holding each of her serves to stay ahead.

After a break put her up 5-2 in the set, Jon Wertheim of Sports Illustrated noted the impressive effort:

She kept her serving going as well, closing out the first set with shots like this:

Meanwhile, the serve continued to be her friend in the second set, as she gave Williams a taste of her own medicine. Tennis Now showed how good she was with the first serve:

Another early break for Pliskova gave her a 2-1 lead in the second set, although the top player in the world wasn't going to go away that easily.

Down 3-2, Williams responded with a huge game, as Nick McCarvel of USA Today detailed:

She followed it up with a much-needed hold to go up 4-3, and the two players continued the trend until they reached a tiebreak at 6-6.

While there were a few major swings in momentum during the tiebreak, it was Pliskova who came out on top on a double-fault by Williams.

Pliskova's confidence was obvious after the match, per U.S. Open Tennis:

The No. 10 seed had already defeated Venus Williams earlier in this tournament with a dramatic three-set victory. The Czech player noted this provided an advantage when previewing the semifinal battle against Serena. 

"She's a big hitter and she can have 50 winners and you cannot do much about it," Pliskova said of Serena, per Danielle Rossingh of CNN. "But I hope that there is going to be some chance in the match where I can get my chance and be the one who is playing aggressive. Obviously I played Venus this week, who is probably not as good as she is, but it's very similar game. So I'll just have to be ready for it."

Although she had never even advanced to a quarterfinal in a Grand Slam before this point, this has been the best major performance of her life. Pliskova should have plenty of confidence heading into the final. 

Angelique Kerber def. Caroline Wozniacki; 6-4, 6-3

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Fresh off seeing her biggest competition fall in the previous match, Kerber went in with plenty of confidence and secured a straight-set win over Wozniacki. 

The German player wasn't dominant with her first serve but didn't need to be in the win. She had zero aces and only got 58 percent of her first serves in play, but ended up winning 62 percent of service points overall.

Meanwhile, Wozniacki struggled with consistency and had 26 unforced errors compared to 21 winners.

ESPN Stats and Info provided an interesting note on the eventual winner:

This match looked like a runaway from the start as Kerber jumped out to a commanding 4-0 lead in the first set. Howard Bryant of ESPN The Magazine described the difference in the match:

Wozniacki wouldn't concede the first set easily, though, and won four of the next five games to keep it competitive.

Nikhila Makker of FirstPost.com summed up the rest of the set:

Still, Kerber was able to survive the comeback and pull secure a 6-4 win despite succeeding on just two of eight break points:

The second set was almost identical to the first with Kerber once again earning an early lead. She went up 5-1 with a few chance to close out the match but her competition wouldn't give up and won the next two games to stay alive.

However, Kerber once again bounced back when it was needed, earning a break to win the set and the match.

Wozniacki will be disappointed in the loss but this was still an impressive showing for the former No. 1 who is now just 74th in the world rankings. If she can keep the momentum from these two weeks, she should be able to climb the list quickly.

Kerber will look for her second major title of the year after winning at the Australian Open, hoping to avoid an upset to Pliskova as Williams did earlier in the day.

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