Buy Us Open Tennis Tickets 2017
Love-15: As 2017 draws to a close, USTA.com is taking a look back at the top 15 storylines, headlines and highlights from the year in American tennis. Up now: The US Open semifinals feature four American women for the first time in more than 30 years.
buy us open tennis tickets 2017
Maria Sharapova was back in the limelight, taking centre stage on opening night as the 30-year-old former world No 1 returned to Grand Slam tennis for the first time since the end of her 15-month doping ban.
We needed this moment. We needed to see these long-discussed American tennis prodigies come full circle, into American tennis stardom. We needed both the black girl magic and the black woman excellence. We needed Sloane Stephens vs. Madison Keys in the 2017 U.S. Open final, embracing as they would have after any result.
In a repeat of the 2016 US Open final, Kerber once again triumphed against world number four Karolina Pliskova for her first top-20 win of the year. That match was also one of the best matches of the year, with both players putting up a high-quality performance. This sent Kerber into just her third semifinal appearance of the year, but an arm injury hindered the German from playing her best tennis and despite making a comeback from 0-6, 2-5 down against Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, she lost a 3-0 lead in the final set and exited in the last four. Nonetheless, it was an impressive tournament for Kerber, who struggled throughout the 2017 and this result definitely gave a confidence boost to her.
The start of the year was definitely a poor one for Kerber, who exited in the quarterfinals of the Brisbane International to Elina Svitolina and falling in the opening round of the Sydney International to Daria Kasatkina. The German entered 2017 with a new mindset, after all her achievements in the previous year. She had a massive amount of points to defend throughout the year, and she already had to defend finalist points in Brisbane. Kerber was unable to find the rhythm in her game, with her forehand being extremely inconsistent and her opponents had nothing to lose while playing against her, thus explaining most of her losses this year. Another opening-round exit followed in Doha, where she lost to Russian youngster Kasatkina yet again. 041b061a72