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NEW YORK -- This was a crazy US Open on the women's side. A 15-year-old from San Francisco won a main-draw match, qualifiers knocked off the Nos. 2 and 3 seeds, Simona Halep and Petra Kvitova, and Serena Williams got past the fourth round in a Grand Slam for the first time this year. Here's the up-or-down accounting after the season's final major: No. 1 Serena Williams: Just when you think she's down, she's up. After a miserable showing in the three previous Slams, Serena came through with her 18th major title. She beat Caroline Wozniacki in the final and tied legends Martina Navratilova and Chris Evert. Of course she did. Serena's won three straight US Open titles (six overall) and 21 straight matches here, a feat that hadn't been accomplished since Evert did it in the mid-1970s. No. 2 Simona Halep: The French Open finalist and world No. 2 had a rough summer. She lost in the quarters at Cincinnati and the first round at New Haven, and her third-round exit at the US Open came at the hands of qualifier Mirjana Lucic-Baroni. No. 3 Petra Kvitova: Kvitova, the newly minted Wimbledon champion, does not love New York. She had never been past the fourth round here -- and she still hasn't. Kvitova, too, was taken out in the third round by a qualifier, Aleksandra Krunic. No. 4 Maria Sharapova: In retrospect, the loss to Wozniacki in the fourth round wasn't as bad as it seemed at the time, considering Wozniacki blew into the final. But there are still questions about Sharapova heading into the fall. No. 9 Caroline Wozniacki: Not only did she vault into the final in New York, but she also showed sportsmanship after Peng Shuai struggled in their semifinal match. Wozniacki continued hitting serves during a medical timeout that lasted more than 10 minutes -- all part of her training for next month's New York City Marathon. No. 15 Ekaterina Makarova: She and doubles partner Elena Vesnina beat Serena and Venus Williams in doubles and went on to win the US Open title. But in singles, it was a different story. Serena beat the Russian in 60 minutes. Still, it was her first career major semifinal, a watershed achievement and a career-high ranking. No. 21 Peng Shuai: Even though she collapsed amid the heat and humidity in the US Open semifinal, Peng (up 18 spots) gets a big up here. The overlooked, unseeded Chinese player showed some grit in beating No. 4 seed Agnieszka Radwanska in the second round -- and even more in attempting to finish her match with Wozniacki. No. 431 CiCi Bellis: The 15-year-old from San Francisco captured hearts and headlines when she scored a first-round win over No. 12 seed Dominika Cibulkova. She became the youngest to win a US Open match since Anna Kournikova did it 18 years earlier. Her ranking jumps an extraordinary (and lucky) 777 spots. |
