--- title: Serena Williams In U.S. Open Final a Year After Near-Death description: Serena Williams beat Anastasija Sevastova to advance to the U.S. Open finals, where she'll battle for a record 24th Grand Slam singles title canonical: https://time.com/5389564/serena-williams-us-open-immortality-final-osaka/ author: Sean Gregory article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-09-07T04:42:24.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-10-13T07:53:30.418Z article:section: Sports og:title: Serena Williams In U.S. Open Final A Year After Near-Death og:description: Williams will play Naomi Osaka for a record 24th Grand Slam singles title og:url: https://time.com/5389564/serena-williams-us-open-immortality-final-osaka/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf2dffeec273865bb/698939bd97cdff7f446b62ec/serena-williams-us-open1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3000 og:image:height: 1688 og:image:alt: US Open Tennis Tournament 2018 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Serena Williams In U.S. Open Final A Year After Near-Death twitter:description: Williams will play Naomi Osaka for a record 24th Grand Slam singles title twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf2dffeec273865bb/698939bd97cdff7f446b62ec/serena-williams-us-open1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Serena Williams Is One Step Closer to More Sporting Immortality > Sponsored content. 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Terms and conditions apply. * Savings buckets are a feature of Ally Bank's Savings Account. * No ATM fees from Ally Bank at Allpoint and Moneypass ATMs plus we reimburse for fees charged by other ATM owners nationwide up to $10 per statement cycle. * Early direct deposit offers eligible direct deposits up to two days sooner. * Spending buckets are a feature of Ally Bank's Spending Account. ## Video: FIRSTS Serena Williams [Watch (HLS stream): FIRSTS Serena Williams](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/qRrT89Xb.m3u8) (2:06)  _Published 2017-09-02. Serena Williams is the FIRST tennis player to win 23 Grand Slam singles titles in the Open era._  by [Sean Gregory](https://time.com/author/sean-gregory/)  ## Sean Gregory Senior Correspondent Sep 7, 2018 4:42 AM UTC  by [Sean Gregory](https://time.com/author/sean-gregory/)  ## Sean Gregory Senior Correspondent Sep 7, 2018 4:42 AM UTC A year ago, Serena Williams fought for her life. Now, she’s fighting for another piece of sports history. Williams wrote the [latest chapter](http://time.com/5382684/serena-williams-vs-venus-williams/) of her remarkable comeback story on Thursday night in New York City, as she made quick work of No. 19-seed Anastasija Sevastova of Latvia, 6-3, 6-0, in the U.S. Open semifinals. Williams had stumbled in the last two semifinals she reached at the U.S. Open, in 2015 and 2016 — she missed last year’s event to [give birth](http://time.com/4937206/serena-williams-daughter-photo/) to her daughter, Olympia, who just turned one. The [complications](http://time.com/5359811/serena-williams-post-partum/) from that delivery caused her to suffer a pulmonary embolism, required five surgeries, and left her bed-ridden for weeks. Another semifinal loss for Williams would not have been a huge shocker. But she had alternative plans. Williams, 36, has now reached the final of the last two Grand Slams. At Wimbledon, in July, Angelique Kerber beat her for the championship in straight sets. With a win at the U.S. Open on Saturday against Japanese phenom Naomi Osaka, who defeated American Madison Keys 6-2, 6-4 in the other semifinal, Williams would tie Margaret Court for the overall record of 24 Grand Slam singles titles. With 23 Grand Slam titles to her name, Williams already owns the post-1968 “Open Era” record. A little over a month ago, Williams suffered the worst loss of her professional career, a 6-1, 6-0 drubbing at the hands of Johanna Konta of Great Britain at a tournament in San Jose. At that time, she was struggling to balance motherhood and her athletic career. Reaching another final in short order seemed like something of a longshot. **_Read More:_** [_TIME Cover Story — Serena Williams Opens Up About Her Complicated Comeback_](http://time.com/5368858/serena-williams-comeback/) Williams, as is her wont, made it look easy. Sevastova broke her serve in the first game of the match; Williams upped the velocity of her groundstrokes, but Sevastova played stubborn defense. A hold put Sevastova up 2-0\. The announced pro-Serena crowd of 22,450 — which was sitting under the Arthur Ashe Stadium roof due to rain — didn’t quite panic. But there was palpable concern. No need; Williams then won 12 of the next 13 games. Sevastova kept trying drop shots; they kept landing in the net. “I think I was standing too far behind when I was playing them,” she says. “It didn’t work that well today, the drop shot.” Serena’s serves — which on average traveled some 10 miles per hour faster than Sevastova’s — overwhelmed her opponent. And Williams tried something a little different. She started charging the net. “I just usually only come in to shake hands,” she joked afterwards. But she’s been practicing her net game. The effort paid off: Williams won 24 of 28 of her net points, an 86% rate. Sevastova won just 3 net points (out of 6, for 50%). The win sets up a tantalizing final between Williams and Osaka, 20, who considers Williams her idol. After beating Keys, Osaka was asked if she had a message for Williams.”I love you?” she replied. How did she save 13 of 13 break points against Keys? “This is gonna sound really bad, but I was just thinking ‘I really wanna play Serena,'” Osaka said. Why? “Because she’s Serena.” “Even as a little kid,” says Osaka. “I always dreamed that I would play Serena in the final of a Grand Slam.” Osaka started playing tennis because her father saw the Williams sisters compete at the 1999 French Open; he decided to teach his daughter the game. Osaka lived in her native Japan until she was three, then moved to Long Island, where she lived until she was nine. A dual citizen of both Japan and the United States, Osaka competes for Japan since the Japanese Tennis Association committed more resources to her development. Osaka — whose coach, Sascha Bajin, is Serena’s former hitting partner — won the top-tier Indian Wells, California tournament in March. She then beat Serena in straight sets during the first round of the Miami tournament that same month. “I can only go up from that match,” Williams says. After that loss Williams’ coach, Patrick Mouratoglou, told her she had to put tennis before family in order to return to form. He asked Williams to immediately report to his academy in France to prep for the clay court season. Williams blanched, and chose to spend a few more weeks at home with her family. Once she arrived in France, she agreed to stop breastfeeding Olympia — she believed breastfeeding hurt her fitness level — and according to Mouratoglou, she worked harder than ever. So now she’s back in the U.S. Open final, for a ninth time. She’s won six U.S. Open singles championships, her first coming in 1999, her last sixth in 2014\. After her semifinal win, Serena said just making the final feels like a victory, But don’t buy that. Yes, just reaching the Wimbledon final this summer, and advancing this far in the U.S. Open a year removed from a near-death experience, continues to inspire her millions of admirers — [especially](http://time.com/5368858/serena-williams-comeback/) working moms. But losing to consecutive Slam finals will gnaw at a competitor like Williams. “This is just the beginning,” says Williams. “I’m on the climb still.” The peak is now one match away. What a view that will be. ## Transcript People will look at you and they'll try and define you. Whether you're a woman, whether you're young, they'll try and cabin off what you're able to do. But people can only do that if you let them and so I always viewed my job as defining myself >> If we are in a meeting we're there for a reason, not to just sit there and absorb. If you are only there not speaking you kind of create the impression that you're not prepared to be there. You need to participate and you need to know what you're talking about. You can ask a man to do a job that he's never been qualified to do and he will raise his hand and say, absolutely, I will do that job. Women always say, I'm not sure if I'm ready yet, More experience. I don't necessarily know if there's anything wrong with being more cautious and careful. I mean why have we come to decide that being brash and overly aggressive should be the way we are. But we should also know that we're not going to feel any wiser or any more ready in ten years than we did ten years ago. So we might as well just leave. There is a lot of perception of, My gosh, it's really hard because of the gender. What are you gonna do about that, just not do it? If you want to do something, you just do it, and then hope that people catch up to you. For girls that are going to be playing little league, anything could happen. You could be up by 10 runs, and you can loose the game. So stay focused, make sure you play as a team, and hopefully you hit a home run, because no girl has ever hit a home run, and I'll be cheering for you. You'll never make everyone happy, so you just have to be exactly who it is that you are, and at least know that you've been true to yourself. It's about attitude, aptitude, and opportunity. Who knew I would be here? But it all started with folks that thought I had a good attitude. That put me in places that challenged me and then provided me opportunities because I met and exceeded the standard. You often don't realize, people want you to succeed, and they often have very good solutions, both practical and in terms of thinking of opportunities for you. And the other thing is, I think it's not too bad Periods of great intensity doing one thing or the other. Meryl Streep once said, " Every successful woman's life has its ebbs and flows ." Know your power, know the power of your intellect, of your values and commitment, the courage that you have, and don't let anybody trivialize How you have spent your years. All of them have contributed to making a very unique and special person. Just take joy, don't let anyone discourage you from that thing that you love the most. It's more about making life. 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