Keys v Stephens Final

The women's semi finals at the 2017 US Open provided one set of competitive tennis and two players into the final who have never been there before, in fact never seen a final at Grand Slam level.

First up were Venus Williams (9) and Sloane Stephens, a mere 13 years and 7 Grand Slam titles between them.

Stephens refused to take notice of the greatness of Venus in set one, winning five straight games from 1-1, breaking twice and not facing a break point on her own serve.

Venus looked the complete antithesis of the player who had starred throughout the tournament to date.

A 180 degree shift occurred in game one of set two when Stephens couldn't convert three break chances.

Venus wasted two game points of her own before holding due to a couple of errors from Stephens.

Then Venus won the next five games to bagel Stephens and level proceedings.

Double the winners and double the points won on serve and the momentum was clearly now with Williams.

The third set was a ripper, with the best of Stephens from set one and Williams from set two, but raised higher.

Stephens opened brightly, breaking for 2-0, only to have Venus win the next three games.

Stephens once again attacked the Williams serve, gaining an advantage in the seventh game on the third break point, forcing a volley error.

Venus calmly forced Stephens into backhand problems and levelled at 4-4.

Playing catch up, Sloane played solid tennis for 5-5.

Then it was magic with a withering backhand to place pressure on the Williams serve at 0-15.  Another wonderful point ending with a Stephens forehand winner forced Venus into errors and a break of her serve.

Stephens served it out and found herself in the final - just a month ago she was 934 in the world, having played and lost two matches, coming back from a year out with injury.  Now she can claim semi finals in Toronto and Cincinnati, and a chance to win a Grand Slam title.  Her ranking is currently 22 with the possibility of moving to 17.

The second semi promised much more than it delivered, although Madison Keys (15) certainly delivered quality in spades against a disappointing Coco Vandeweghe (20).

Keys lost just three games for the match and never faced a break point.

25 winners against only 9 unforced errors is one statistic demonstrating how well Keys dominated.

Although Sloane Stephens is in fine form, there is no doubt Madison Keys starts a warm favourite to capture her first major.

Her only loss in the past 14 matches was to Garbine Muguruza in the fourth round at Cincinnati and she held three match points in that clash against the hottest player at the time.