SUMMARY:For the first time since 1981, all four women's U.S. Open semifinalists are American. But it's a different story for their male counterparts, who haven't won the semifinals since Andy Roddick in 2003. It's a long drought that American tennis officials are determined to end. Jeffrey Brown reports on why the U.S. is losing its competitive advantage in the world of men's tennis.
SUMMARY: Winner of this year's French Open, Australian Open and Wimbledon, Serena Williams seemed poised to clinch a spectacular Grand Slam triumph at the U.S. Open (tennis). But her hopes were dashed Friday when Roberta Vinci of Italy defeated the 21-time majors champion in a stunning upset. Hari Sreenivasan talks to Christine Brennan of USA Today.
HARI SREENIVASAN (NewsHour): When Serena Williams took to the court this afternoon, her match was expected by many to be one more victory on the road to a spectacular Grand Slam triumph.
Williams had won all three prior major titles this year, the French Open, Australian Open and Wimbledon. She defeated her sister, Venus, in a tough match earlier this week. But her opponent, unseated Roberta Vinci of Italy, dashed the hopes of the 21-time major champion in a stunning upset.
Serena was going for history and trying to become the first woman to win a Grand Slam, all four majors in the same season, since Steffi Graf last did that in 1988.
Christine Brennan of USA Today and a commentator for ABC News joins us now.
We were all watching. What happened?
CHRISTINE BRENNAN, USA Today: Yes, exactly. What happened?
Well, Vinci happened. And one of the biggest upsets, Hari, we have ever seen in sports, men or women’s, any sport around the world happened, one of the biggest. I’m not saying it’s the biggest. But Buster Douglas beat Mike Tyson in 1990. You have had upsets in golf. Of course, people remember the U.S. beating the Soviets in hockey at the Olympics in 1980.
I don’t know where that ranks that, to me, is always going to be the biggest. But in terms of a story that had been building not just for the last week-and-a-half, almost two weeks of the U.S. Open (tennis), but all summer, as we have been looking at the stories of American Pharoah and Jordan Spieth, and we have been talking Grand Slams and Triple Crowns, and here comes Serena just blazing the trail with the Australian, the French, Wimbledon.
And she is at her home tournament. Wow. No one ever saw this coming.
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