US Open 2020, women’s semi-finals, LIVE tennis score: Naomi Osaka wins first set vs Jennifer Brady; Serena vs Azarenka to follow – Sports News , Firstpost

Naomi Osaka takes on Jennifer Brady in the women’s semi-final at 2020 US Open. AP

Serena Williams will play Victoria Azarenka in one women’s semifinal – a rematch of the 2012 and 2013 US Open finals won by Williams – and Naomi Osaka will face Jennifer Brady in the other.

Williams is closing in on what would be her seventh US Open championship and record-tying 24th Grand Slam singles title overall. She has made it to the semifinals in each of her past 11 appearances in New York. Azarenka is a two-time Australian Open champion on a 10-match winning streak and back in a Grand Slam semifinal for the first time in seven years. Williams leads Azarenka 18-4 head-to-head.

Williams, who turns 39 later this month, is coming off two three-set comeback victories in a row and hit 20 aces in her win against Tsvetana Pironkova in the quarterfinals.

Williams was the runner-up at Flushing Meadows each of the past two years; she lost to Osaka in the 2018 final. That was one of Osaka’s two Grand Slam titles. Brady, meanwhile, had never been past the fourth at any major tournament until this week.

But she is playing as well as anyone since tennis resumed last month from its hiatus because of the coronavirus, winning the first WTA title of her career at Lexington, Kentucky.

Brady is a 25-year-old from Pennsylvania who helped UCLA win a college championship. She and Osaka have played twice, each winning once by a 6-4, 6-4 score, although Brady’s victory came six years ago.

(With inputs from AP)