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Serena Williams Beats Elina Svitolina to Reach U.S. Open Final
Serena Williams dominated Elina Svitolina to reach the U.S. Open final, bringing her one step closer to tying Margaret Court's all-time record of 24 Grand Slam singles titles. She needed just 70 minutes to secure the 6-2, 6-1.
She will face either No. 15 Bianca Andreescu or No. 13 Belinda Bencic, who were to play in the second semifinal on Thursday night, in the final on Saturday.
Williams, the No. 8 seed, took control of the match early by breaking Svitolina in her first service game. The two then traded games until Williams closed out the opening set with a routine hold.
She mantained her strangelhold on the match throughout the second set, winning virtually every extended rally and hitting 33 total winners to Svitolina's 11.
Williams has improved throughout the tournament and played nearly perfect tennis to beat Qiang Wang in just 44 minutes in the quarterfinal. She has not dropped a set since losing the opener to 17-year-old Caty McNally in the second round.
Saturday's final will be Williams's fourth since giving birth to her daughter. She is 0-3 in those finals, most recently losing to Simona Halep at Wimbledon. Neither Andreescu, 19, nor Bencic, 22, have ever played in a Grand Slam final.
