SERENA WILLIAMS’ legendary accomplishments and flashes of her yesteryear dominance returned as she saw off Tsvetana Pironkova 4-6 6-3 6-2 at New York’s Flushing Meadows on September 9.

Williams’ latest triumph made her the first player ever to hold over a century of wins (101) at the Arthur Ashe Stadium, one of most prestigious places to play tennis in the world, as she waltzed into the US Open semi-finals.

In the battle of veterans and mothers, no.3 seed Williams – who missed more than a year after having a daughter in 2017 – went into the contest having won their past four previous meetings. But unseeded Pironkova, competing in her first tournament following a three-year hiatus after giving birth to a son, refused to succumb like their previous pair of straight-set defeats on hard court 

Unable

Williams looked edgy in the opening set, unable to deal with the Bulgarian’s serves. But she bounced back from losing the opening game of the second set to race into a 5-3 lead by winning a 24-stroke exchange and closing with three aces.

The deciding set became more of a formality as Williams, seemingly back to her best, reeled off the final three games and polished off Pironkova in style with two aces, a service winner down the middle and a backhand winner at the net.

Yet Williams, in her quest for a record-equalling 24th major title, was rattled in the opening set by a player who has not even got a world ranking due to being absent from the WTA Tour for so long.

Williams confidently opened their quarter-final with three aces, only for wild card entry Pironkova to match her by winning her service game with ease by thumping down a 108mph down the centre on the first point.

Control

It was 32-year-old Pironkova who took control by in love in the fourth game, Williams unable to get a single ball back into play. And the Bulgarian took advantage of her hard-hitting opponent’s on-going hesistancy in the next game, snatching an early break with a thunderous backhand winner down the line for a 3-2 lead.

Unforced errors began to creep into Williams’ game and her tactics of playing heavily to her opponent’s forehand simply failed to haul her back into the match.

It came as no surprise when Pironkova closed out the set. Nerves seem to get the better of her as she served a double fault but responded with an electrifying 110mph ace, service winner and backhand winner for a deserved lead.

The underdog showed bite by breaking in the opening game of the second set, but American legend Williams dug deep with two breaks of serve to race away with the set that she sealed in style with a trio of aces.

Trepidation

Williams surprisingly started the final set with trepidation, which appeared as though she had run out of steam, as Pironkova’s movement around court fluxomed her.

But the six-time US Open champion snatched the opening game with her third break by winning a 16-point marathon. She then made it five games on the bounce, serving her way out of trouble after being pushed to deuce, to have the upper hand.

Pironkova, fighting from behind in her sixth successive service game, held but then it was one-way traffic. She simply lacked the confidence that she showed earlier, having cruised away on her serve in the opening stages of the match and thundering backhands to give Williams the runaround, with the tables turned in favour of the 23-time Grand Slam champion.

After edging 3-1 ahead, Williams soon wrapped up the match and saw off the gutsy Pironkova for a confidence-boosting victory – the first ever major quarter-final battled out by two mothers.

Williams said: “Whenever you can birth a baby, then honestly you can do anything. And I think we saw that with Tsvetana today becaused she played unbelievable. She’s incredible, I could barely win a match when I came back.

Fatigued

“Just in the beginning I was a little fatigued for whatever reason. Obviously I can’t do that if I want to keep winning, so I’m going to try to figure out how to start out a little bit faster.”

If Williams does claim her 24th Grand Slam singles title at the US Open then arguably the history books will claim it was cheapened by the thinned-out field as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. Yet the American has been on the WTA Tour for 25 years, has made 75 major appearances and been a model role for millions of youngsters, so her achievement of a record-equalling crown will mean more to her than others.