Iga Swiatek reaches first US Open final, will face fifth seed Ons Jabeur for a record fifth time
Ons Jabeur, the 2005 U.S. Open champion, has emerged as the top challenger in the fourth round of qualifying for the U.S. Open at Forest Hills Stadium on Saturday, a match he will need to win if he is to reach his fifth career Grand Slam final.
Swiatek, the 2005 U.S. Open champion, has reached his first Grand Slam singles final and will continue his quest for a record fifth U.S. Open title against an opponent he has never beaten.
Swiatek will meet Jabeur in the final, the first meeting in the U.S. Open semifinals in four years. The two have only met eight times in the majors.
Swiatek trailed 1-5 in 4-6, 6-2, 7-6(4) and will need to win one more match if he is to make it to his fifth career Grand Slam final. The only other player to reach five U.S. Open finals was Pete Sampras, who was successful twice with different opponents.
Jabeur is a two-time Roland Garros champion and three-time U.S. Open champion, making him one of only three players to win all four grand slam events. He reached his first career Grand Slam finals at the 2000 U.S. Open against Rafael Nadal.
The U.S. Open will have a new permanent host, the Forest Hills Tennis Center in Queens, N.Y., which has hosted the tournament since it debuted in 1957. Forest Hills opens in the summer of 2015.
Swiatek fell behind 1-4 in the first set before rallying for a win in the third and a tiebreaker to force a deciding set.
He lost the first set in the third, but won the next four games in a row to level at 2-2. Swiatek began to take control of the match, taking two games in a row, including holding a 4-3 lead. With one match point on serve, he lost his fourth service game of the set.
The sixth-seeded Italian dropped his second-set tiebreaking point and will need to win the third, in which he will need to serve out for the first time at the U.S. Open, to become