US Open Tennis Semifinals: Venus, Henin, Chakvetadze, Kuznetsova Notes

Unless Venus Williams wins the title on Saturday, we will go a stretch of 16 straight Grand Slam events without a single player winning consecutive Grand Slam titles; the last was Justine Henin (2003 US Open-2004 Australian Open); the best run in professional tennis history is 18 (between the 1976 US Open and 1980 [Dec.] Australian Open), until Hana Mandlikova won 1981 Roland Garros right after claiming the 1980 end-of-year Australian Open when the Australian Open was held at the end of the year between 1977 and 1985.

There will have seven different major finalists out of a possible eight in 2007; that feat was only matched three other times in the Open Era (1978, 1998, 2004) and bettered once (1977), when all four finals featured a different finalist.

Since 1999, only five players have accomplished the rare feat of beating a Williams en route to a Grand Slam title: Justine Henin (2003, 2007 Roland Garros: Serena in semifinals and quarterfinals, respectively), Jennifer Capriati (2001 Roland Garros: Serena in quarterfinals); Kim Clijsters (2005 US Open: Venus in quarterfinals), Anastasia Myskina (2004 Roland Garros: Venus in quarterfinals) and Maria Sharapova (2004 Wimbledon: Serena in final).

No woman has ever beaten both Williams sisters in the same Grand Slam event and gone on to win the title; at the 2001 Australian Open, Martina Hingis beat both Serena (quarterfinals) and Venus (semifinals) – the only player thus far to achieve a Williams sweep at a major – but fell in the final to Jennifer Capriati; can Justine Henin write a new piece of history over the next few days?

RANK PROJECTIONS
• Justine Henin: Safe at No.1 regardless of her final result
• Svetlana Kuznetsova: Moves from No.4 to a career-high No.2, and becoming the No.1 Russian in the process and the third Russian to rank in the world's Top 2 (Sharapova, Myskina)
• Jelena Jankovic: Set to remain at No.3 but would be overtaken by Chakvetadze if the Russian wins the title • Maria Sharapova: Having surrendered her title in the third round, will fall from No.2 to No.4, unless Chakvetadze wins the title, in which case she will fall to No.5
• Anna Chakvetadze: Will make her Top 5 debut at No.5 by reaching the semifinals; will stay at No.5 if she finishes runner-up, but would rise to No.3 if she wins the title
• Ana Ivanovic: Will fall from No.5 to No.6
• Serena Williams: Set to rise from No.9 to No.7 after her quarterfinal finish
• Nadia Petrova: Unchanged at No.8
• Venus Williams: Moves No.14 to No.9 by reaching the semifinals, her first time in the Top 10 since April 2, 2006; she will rise to No.7 with a runner-up finish or a title
• Marion Bartoli: Will remain at No.10, but with Mauresmo falling out of the Top 10 (see below), she will become the No.1-ranked Frenchwoman, the first change in that country's No.1 ranking since April 2001
• Amélie Mauresmo: Unable to defend her semifinal finish in 2006, falls from No.7 to No.11, her first time outside the Top 10 since July 7, 2002
• Shahar Peer: Will rise from No.19 to No.16 after her quarterfinal finish, one spot below her career-high ranking • Agnes Szavay: Will rise from No.31 to No.23 (the highest-ranked Hungarian since the inception of computer singles rankings in 1975 is Andrea Temesvari, who reached No.7 in January 1984)
• Agnieszka Radwanska: A modest two-spot rise to a career-high No.30, the highest ranking by a Polish woman since Magdalena Grzybowska reached the same spot in August 1998
• Victoria Azarenka: A three-spot jump to No.38 after her fourth-round finish; her career-high is No.37
• Tamira Paszek: Will rise four spots to No.39 after reaching the fourth round at a second consecutive major
• Julia Vakulenko: Will rise from No.50 to No.41 after her giant-killing run to the fourth round