Sloane Stephens will be defending her title at the U.S. Open but all eyes will be on Serena Williams over the coming two weeks as the six-times champion attempts to win her first Grand Slam title since becoming a mother.
Tournament officials said there was no heat rule in effect on Friday for the first time in three days, with cloud cover expected to bring cooler temperatures.
Newly-crowned world number one Kim Clijsters feels she is ready to win her first grand slam title at the U.S. Open.
Serena Williams' decision to end a 14-year boycott of the BNP Paribas Open has been warmly welcomed by her peers with good friend and rival Caroline Wozniacki saying it was "great for tennis".
Challengers to Serena Williams' throne have proved as fickle as a Paris spring and as the year's second grand slam starts the veteran American is again seemingly in a league of her own. The 34-year-old's charge to overhaul Margaret Court's record 24 grand slam singles titles may have stalled since she chalked up major number 21 at last year's Wimbledon. But after fine-tuning her claycourt game by winning last week's Italian Open she will begin the defence of her French Open title as the strong favourite. With twice French Open champion Maria Sharapova suspended pending the findings of an anti-doping hearing after she tested positive for Meldonium in Australia this year, the list of players capable of toppling a fully firing Williams is short.
Comeback queen Williams demonstrated that she still belonged among the elite as she annihilated Sharapova to win her eighth Grand Slam trophy.
Images from the US Open women's singles second round matches, at Flushing Meadows, New York, on Thursday.
Serena Williams' behaviour in Saturday's US Open final divided the tennis world after she called the chair umpire a "liar" and a "thief" and said he treated her differently than male players during her loss to Naomi Osaka.
Juan Martin del Potro suffered the first real upset and Victoria Azarenka had a big scare, but Serena Williams and Andy Murray eased through challenging ties to reach the last 16 of the Australian Open on Saturday.
Images from the matches played on Day 8 at the Australian Open at Melbourne Park on Tuesday
Stephens sees success of Black women inspiring new generation.
World number one Serena Williams stepped up her bid for a third Paris Open title by reaching the semi-finals with a 6-4, 6-1 victory over Emilie Loit on Friday. The American, winner here in 1999 and 2003, next plays Olympic champion Elena Dementieva after the Russian saw off another Frenchwoman, Nathalie Dechy, 6-3, 6-2.
Halep finds groove to reach Prague semi-finals.
The top seed began her Australian Open quest with a pulverising 6-0, 6-0 win over 15-year-old Olivia Lukaszewicz on Monday.
World No 1 Serena Williams's 27-match unbeaten run ended with a 6-2, 6-3 defeat by Petra Kvitova in the Madrid Open.
Serena Williams edged past Spain's Garbine Muguruza 2-6, 6-3, 6-2 to reach the quarters.
India's teen tennis sensation said it was good to know that she could match the six-time Grand Slam champion.
World No 1 Serena Williams has tormented Maria Sharapova for over a decade
Factbox on American second seed Coco Gauff, who defeated Belarusian world number one Aryna Sabalenka
Serena Williams clinched the year-end World No 1 ranking for the fourth time without hitting a ball on Friday after Maria Sharapova, the only woman with any chance of overtaking her, was eliminated from the WTA Finals.
Tournament favourite Novak Djokovic beat Finnish veteran Jarkko Nieminen 6-2, 7-5, 6-2 on Tuesday, kicking off his quest for a first ever Paris trophy to add to his eight other Grand Slams.
Top ranked Serena Williams made a successful return to hard courts with a 6-3, 6-2 thrashing of former French Open champion Francesca Schiavone in the second round of the Rogers Cup on Wednesday.
Jasmine Paolini's exit means only one of the top five women's seeds -- world number one Aryna Sabalenka -- will be in the third round. It is only the second time that this has happened in the professional era after Wimbledon 2018.
After four days of play, the French Open was left without a Williams sister in the draw on Wednesday when former runner-up Venus joined 2002 champion Serena in making an early exit.
Roger Federer and Serena Williams both swept into the third round of the US Open on Thursday with the sort of ruthless performances that have made them the king and queen of tennis.
Top seed Serena Williams made short work of Kazakhstan's Zarina Diyas in the third round of the BNP Paribas Open.
Williams sisters Serena and Venus had been hoping to provide fans with the first all-Williams sisters clash at a Grand Slam since the 2009 Wimbledon final in the semi-finals.
Following Iga Swiatek's victory over Coco Gauff in the final, here's a list of French Open women's singles champions:
Venus Williams targets return for Indian Wells and Miami
It would be hard to bet against the Williams sisters meeting in their first Wimbledon final since 2009, but Angelique Kerber and Elena Vesnina won't just be making up the numbers in the last four on Thursday. While unseeded Vesnina has described her semi-final against world number one Serena Williams as a dream, she is playing inspired tennis, bringing the guile from two doubles slams to deliver baseline power and a deft touch at the net.
The United States survived a fright from little Latvia on Saturday before winning 3-2 in a Fed Cup qualifier as Serena Williams suffered her first career singles loss in the team event. Switzerland, Spain, Belgium, Slovakia, Germany, Russia and Belarus also moved through to the inaugural 12-nation showdown in Budapest.
IMAGES from Day 8 of the matches played at the US Open at Flushing Meadows on Monday
Revenge will again be in the air when the top seed meets Henin in a semi-final grudge rematch on Thursday.
Serena Williams did not need the help of a fan-filled Arthur Ashe Stadium to provide a lift during her 7-5, 6-4 win over the 96th ranked Kristie Ahn.
Serena Williams is on the brink of the grandest achievement in tennis, the single season Grand Slam, and even the leading men at the US Open championships starting on Monday are cheering her on.
Serena, a six-times champion in New York who is seeded 17th, will start her campaign against Polish world number 60 Magda Linette and could face Venus in the third round before a possible fourth-round showdown with Romanian top seed Halep.
A year after Serena Williams and Naomi Osaka were both caught up in a whirlwind of conflicting emotions, both will be trying to make history in the US Open final on Saturday.
