At the US Open, the women's novice ball

If in the men, the evil trio Djokovic-Nadal-Federer does not stop monopolizing the trophies, winners of the last 13 Grand Slam tournaments, among women, the inconstancy – or the renewal is according to – is decidedly the rule these last seasons.

As in 2017 and 2018, this year there will be a fourth Grand Slam winner in as many (tournaments) major in a US Open, where Serena Williams is the only survivor to have ever won one. The American, 8^e World, clashes in the night from Tuesday 3rd to Wednesday 4th September Wang Qiang, 18^e in the ranking.

The 27-year-old Chinese will play in this occasion her first quarter-final of a major. As in the other part of the table, the Belgian Elise Mertens (7^e) and Canadian Bianca Andreescu (15^e– which is the first participation at the US Open – which will be opposed on Wednesday, as well as Donna Vekic (23^e).

The 23-year-old Croatian qualified on Monday by beating Germany's Julia Görges 6-7, 7-5, 6-4 and coming close to the exit. "I do not even know how I won … she served for the match and had a match point on her serve" at 5-4 in the second set, she summarized.

Vekic had never passed the 3rd^e Flushing Meadows, which she reached in 2017, and her best result in Grand Slam remained until the round of 16 at Wimbledon in 2018 and Roland Garros this year. Wednesday, she will challenge for a place in the semifinals Belinda Bencic (12^e), daughter of Naomi Osaka … as in Indian Wells and Madrid. The Swiss, she will find the quarterfinals of the US Open for the first time since 2014. This half of the table will therefore leave a novice in the final of a major.

Osaka does not arrive anymore

Osaka, who was hoping to bounce back hard after a catastrophic season on clay and grass (defeats in 3^e turn at Roland Garros and entry at Wimbledon), lost big in New York. Not only the Japanese was title holder, but next Monday, she will also lose her place of n^o 1 worldwide for Ashleigh Barty, eliminated at the same stage of the competition in New York. The Australian will regain a throne that she has already held seven weeks after her titles at Roland Garros and Birmingham on grass at the end of June.

"The most important thing is that I put a lot less pressure on a game. I had a lot of fun here, relativised Osaka Monday at the end of the court. I had the impression this summer to have played better than in recent months. Even if I'm not at my best, I play most often against opponents who give their best. And you have to know how to win these games. That's what tests your character. "

At the bottom of the table, Serena Williams, who turns 38 on September 26, is a big favorite. She finds the quarterfinals at home for the 16^e of his career and won the first of his six titles twenty years ago when most of his opponents were still in kindergarten.

But Thomas Drouet, who leads his opponent of the day, Wang Qiang, since Roland Garros, refuses to pay into fatalism: " (Wang Qiang) do not go to make a good match or to say that she has the chance to play Serena Williams. If she tries to beat Serena and what she has done on the "Ashe", or if she thinks of the winner with twenty-three Grand Slam titles, she will not win., he says on Tuesday in The Team. On the other hand, if she wants to beat today's Serena, she will have a chance. It must be aware that it is the one of 2019 that it plays. "

The 4^e Will it be the right one for Serena Williams?

Especially since the American was frightened Sunday in the eighth after having twisted her right ankle in the first set: "I thought, oh no, not again, I'm just walking again!"she said, sighing in reference to the injuries to her knee and back that disrupted her 2019 season.

A 7^e title on Saturday in New York would allow her to match the record of 24 Grand Slam titles held by Margaret Court who refuses her: at Wimbledon in July, facing Simona Halep, she missed her third opportunity to match the mythical record.

The other quarterfinal of the day will pit Elina Svitolina, 5^e world, to Johanna Konta (16^e). The Ukrainian, recent semi-finalist at Wimbledon, favorite on paper, although the British confirmed in New York its good results in Grand Slam this season (semi-final at Roland Garros, quarter-final at Wimbledon).

But it has been seen this fortnight, in New York, more than elsewhere, fortune loves to play prophecies.

Svitolina-Konta

Wawrinka-Medvedev

S. Williams-Wang Qiang

Federer Dimitrov