sloane stephens won the last year's women's singles title at the us open.
sloane stephens won the last year's women's singles title at the us open.
who has won the last year's women's singles title at the us open?
sloane stephens
after her disappointing loss to azarenka in cincinnati, serena entered the 2013 us open as the top seed, the defending champion, and bidding to become the oldest woman to win the u.s. open since tennis turned professional in 1968. she beat former french open champion francesca schiavone in the opening round, dropping only a game and hitting 13 winners to 8 unforced errors. in the second and third rounds, williams easily dispatched kazakhstan opponents, galina voskoboeva and yaroslava shvedova. in the round of 16, williams had a rematch of the australian open against sloane stephens, who surprisingly beat williams in that event. in the first set, williams broke first only to get broken back by stephens in the 7th game. williams then broke in the tenth game to take the set and cruised through the second set in a breadstick to avenge her loss at the australian open. williams put up a ratio of 22 winners to 13 unforced errors. she then faced carla suárez navarro, in the latter's birthday. williams didn't drop a game, handing the spaniard a double bagel loss; the first in a us open since 1989, when 18-time major title winner martina navratilova did it to manuela maleeva. she again had a good ratio, with 20 winners to 9 unforced errors. in the final 4, williams faced 5th seeded li na of china. williams cruised past the chinese with a bagel in the first round. li then took an early break in the second, but williams won four straight games. li then served to stay in the match in the 7th game and saved 6 match points to make williams serve it out, which williams did in her 7th match point. for the first time in the event, williams made more unforced errors of 20 to winners of 19. in the final, williams took on second seed victoria azarenka in a rematch of last year's final. the pair exchanged breaks in the first two games. williams then survived a long tenth game and broke the belarusian the following game, then served out the set. in the second set, williams served for the match twice in the tenth and twelfth game, but got broken by azarenka to push it to a tie-break, which azarenka outlasted williams 8-6. williams then cruised through the final set dropping only a game, winning the match on her 2nd championship point. williams made 36 winners and 9 aces to 35 unforced errors and 5 double faults. this was williams' 5th us open and 17th slam title. it was the first time serena was able to defend a us open title while also becoming the oldest women's us open champion in the open era, surpassing the previous record set by australia's margaret court. for winning the us open series, williams received $2.6m and an additional million in prize money, the highest single paycheck in tennis.
2013 serena williams tennis season
safina enjoyed a breakthrough season in 2008. she compiled a disappointing singles win–loss record of 11–10 to start the season but won her third consecutive doubles title at the brisbane international with ágnes szávay and her first and only tier i doubles title at the pacific life open with compatriot, elena vesnina, during the same period. safina began her singles recovery by claiming her first tier i singles title at the qatar telecom german open, defeating world no. 1 justine henin, fifth seed serena williams, future world no. 1 victoria azarenka and seventh seed elena dementieva in the final. she later commented that the tournament had been "the key to her tennis life" as she had "felt completely lost before that tournament". at the french open, safina defeated world no. 1 maria sharapova and seventh seed elena dementieva in consecutive rounds after rallying from a set, 5–2 and a match point down in both matches; before overcoming fourth seed svetlana kuznetsova in straight sets to reach the first grand slam singles final of her career, where she lost in straight sets to the second seed, ana ivanovic. after a less impressive grass court season, during which she reached her second (and last) career singles final on grass at the ordina open, safina embarked on a fifteen match winning streak, winning singles titles in los angeles and montréal respectively before securing herself the silver medal in women's singles at the 2008 beijing olympics, after a three set loss to dementieva in the final. as a result of her strong performances in the lead-up to the us open, safina finished on top of the 2008 us open series leader board. at the final grand slam of the year, safina advanced to her first us open semi-final and second grand slam singles semi-final overall after a straight sets victory over sixteenth seed, flavia pennetta. following the event, safina entered the top five of the wta singles rankings for the first time, rising to world no. 5. a week later, she captured her third tier i singles title and fourth singles title of the season overall at the toray pan pacific open, dropping just four games in the final against kuznetsova. as a result, she entered the top three of the wta singles rankings for the first time in her career, rising to world no. 3. in november, safina made her debut at the year-ending wta tour championships but lost in the round robin stage. nevertheless, she ended the year ranked world no. 3, marking her first finish in the year-end top five and top ten.
dinara safina career statistics