{"id":19568,"date":"2019-09-03T22:41:32","date_gmt":"2019-09-04T02:41:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordontennis.com\/?p=19568"},"modified":"2019-09-03T22:41:32","modified_gmt":"2019-09-04T02:41:32","slug":"us-open-semifinal-predictions-serena-williams-svitolina","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/2019\/09\/03\/us-open-semifinal-predictions-serena-williams-svitolina\/","title":{"rendered":"US Open Semifinal Prediction: Serena Williams vs Elina Svitolina"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The first of the semifinal matches at the <a href=\"http:\/\/lastwordontennis.com\/us-open\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">US Open<\/a> is set. Serena Williams will face Elina Svitolina for a spot in Saturday&#8217;s final. Who will in this match? That&#8217;s what we&#8217;re here to try to tell you. Predicting this match for you are Tracey Essex, Eric Han, Steen Kirby, and Jim Smith.<\/p>\n<h2>US Open Semifinal Prediction<\/h2>\n<h4><strong>Serena Williams vs Elina Svitolina<\/strong><\/h4>\n<p><em>Tracey:<\/em><br \/>\nIt\u2019s hard to deny a fit and focused Serena Williams. Even with a 62% first serve percentage in her quarterfinal match against Wang Qiang, Serena offered up zero break opportunities. Her stellar 90% win of first serves in play thwarted any offense attack from the Chinese #18 seed. It will be a challenge for Elina Svitolina to find a way into Serena\u2019s game. A defensive mastermind capable of getting nearly every ball in play, Svitolina has the ability to make the #8 seed uncomfortable from time to time. And, the Ukrainian will not be afraid of a hard hitter \u2013 just look at her dismantling of Madison Keys. The #5 seed already knocked out one Williams sister (R2) who was playing well. Can she do it the younger Williams sister? With Serena\u2019s form and that 24th title clearly in her sights, I doubt it.<br \/>\n<em>Prediction: Williams in 3<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Jim:<\/em><br \/>\nWilliams\u2019 record against top ten opposition this year isn\u2019t exactly stellar, but she\u2019ll come into this match in great spirits after demolishing Wang Qiang in the quarterfinals. Will confidence be enough against Svitolina? Not necessarily. The Ukrainian has many of the same qualities as Simona Halep, who so ruthlessly <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordontennis.com\/2019\/07\/13\/halep-upsets-williams-win-wimbledon\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">dispatched Williams<\/a> at <a href=\"http:\/\/lastwordontennis.com\/wimbledon\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Wimbledon<\/a>. Make no mistake, this will likely be a very tough day at the office for Williams.<br \/>\n<em>Prediction: Svitolina in 3<\/em><\/p>\n<p><a id=\"sbIWF2p0Q8VKKMsHwkHdMg\" class=\"gie-single\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/1172017870\" target=\"_blank\" style=\"color:#a7a7a7;text-decoration:none;font-weight:normal !important;border:none;display:inline-block;\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'sbIWF2p0Q8VKKMsHwkHdMg',sig:'rzOQxgWtJImZlQbbdktMLs5HJClj19S3r32yXlodbbs=',w:'371px',h:'594px',items:'1172017870',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n<p><em>Eric:<\/em><br \/>\nSerena wants to win this year. Badly. She quickly dispatched Qiang Wang in her previous match- not allowing the Chinese to hit a single winner in the match. Svitolina has played great tennis throughout the tournament, and is yet to drop a set. But Serena will be tough on a loud Arthur Ashe rooting for her. Can Svitolina cope? Not a lot of people have.<br \/>\n<em>Prediction: Williams in 2<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Steen:<\/em><br \/>\nBoth players are in sizzling form. This is Serena at the US Open, though, and she leads the H2H with the Ukranian. Svitolina is the toughest opponent Serena has faced, but she&#8217;ll survive this test.<br \/>\n<em>Prediction: Williams in 2<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Main Photo:<br \/>\n<a id=\"Q7T9w5RpR09P0uDPekFFwA\" class=\"gie-single\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/1172075002\" target=\"_blank\" style=\"color:#a7a7a7;text-decoration:none;font-weight:normal !important;border:none;display:inline-block;\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'Q7T9w5RpR09P0uDPekFFwA',sig:'qzrhpIqqyRWFeuMPUhopSB4bExZT_m1eYkI2zJiqROc=',w:'594px',h:'396px',items:'1172075002',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The first of the semifinal matches at the US Open is set. Serena Williams will face Elina Svitolina for a spot in Saturday&#8217;s final. Who will in this match? That&#8217;s what we&#8217;re here to try to tell you. Predicting this match for you are Tracey Essex, Eric Han, Steen Kirby, and Jim Smith. US Open [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1601,"featured_media":19569,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4,69,8],"tags":[394,8512,25,3828,8508,2373,2369,3616,8509,8510,8513,8511],"class_list":["post-19568","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-wta","category-predictions","category-us-open","tag-elina-svitolina","tag-elina-svitolina-us-open","tag-serena-williams","tag-serena-williams-us-open","tag-serena-williams-vs-elina-svitolina-prediction","tag-tennis-picks","tag-tennis-predictions","tag-us-open-predictions","tag-us-open-semifinal","tag-us-open-semifinal-predictions","tag-us-open-svitolina","tag-us-open-womens-semifinal"],"modified_by":"Yesh Ginsburg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19568","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1601"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19568"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19568\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19569"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19568"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19568"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19568"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}