NEW YORK—Serena Williams felt as if she had just won a grand slam title after scraping past her sister Venus 7-6 7-6 in the U.S. Open quarter-finals on Wednesday.
The American siblings enthralled a capacity crowd of 23,000 at the Arthur Ashe Stadium with the best match of the women's tournament, a cut-and-thrust encounter which lasted two hours 25 minutes.
"I feel like I should have a trophy now," fourth seed Serena told reporters after setting up a meeting with sixth-seeded Russian Dinara Safina in the last four. "Unfortunately I don't and I got to go to the next round.
"I think we played a great match today. It just boiled down to one point here and there. It could have gone anywhere. I just think we were definitely playing the best (match of the tournament) so far.
"I feel like it was at least a semi or the final," she said about the quality of the match. "But it's not, so I'm hoping to play two more matches."
Serena, who edged ahead of her older sister 9-8 in overall meetings, ranked Wednesday's contest as the second best played between the siblings.
"I still think my Australian Open final against Venus was an incredible match," she said, referring to her 7-6 3-6 6-4 victory in 2003. "That was three tough, tough, tough sets."
U.S. Open champion in 1999 and 2002, Serena was especially pleased with her mental approach on Wednesday after losing to Venus in straight sets at this year's Wimbledon final.
Staying positive
"I definitely managed my emotions a lot better," the 26-year-old said. "That was one thing I really wanted to focus on going into this match, was staying positive.
"I felt like I got really negative at Wimbledon, and lost any chance I might have had."
A high-quality battle between the Williams sisters seemed in the offing after their storming runs at this year's Open.
Venus, winner here in 2000 and 2001, lost just 15 games on her way into the last eight and Serena one fewer.
"We have been playing really with well in this tournament," Serena said. "I thought for sure we'd be in three sets.
"I thought, I'm going to go change my dress because I'm really sweaty and put a new one on," said Serena, who did not have to swap her red dress after all as the match turned on some errors from Venus.
"And then I was like: 'Oh, maybe I won't have to do that.'"
