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U.S. Open: Sloane Stephens & Madsion Keys on to final

Tennis fans move in and out of Arthur Ashe Stadium during the U.S. Open tennis tournament in New York. Photo: Associated Press/(AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)


NEW YORK (AP) — The Latest on the U.S. Open, the last Grand Slam tennis tournament of the year (all times local):

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11:05 p.m.

Madison Keys dominated CoCo Vandeweghe 6-1, 6-2 to reach her first Grand Slam final.

The No. 15 seed will face unseeded Sloane Stephens on Saturday in the first U.S. Open final between American players since Serena Williams beat Venus Williams in 2002.

Keys had no problem with the No. 20 seed Vandeweghe or with an upper right leg injury that caused her to call the trainer to be taped midway through the second set.

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10:25 p.m.

Madison Keys easily took the first set 6-1 in her semifinal match against No. 20 CoCo Vandeweghe.

The No. 15 seed raced to a 5-0 lead and won 19 of the first 22 points, eventually winning the set in 23 minutes.

Keys is trying to reach her first Grand Slam final, where she would play fellow American Sloane Stephens.

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10:25 p.m.

Madison Keys easily took the first set 6-1 in her semifinal match against No. 20 CoCo Vandeweghe.

The No. 15 seed raced to a 5-0 lead and won 19 of the first 22 points, eventually winning the set in 23 minutes.

Keys is trying to reach her first Grand Slam final, where she would play fellow American Sloane Stephens.

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10 p.m.

Madison Keys and CoCo Vandeweghe have started the second all-American matchup of the night in the U.S. Open women’s semifinals.

The winner will reach her first Grand Slam final and make up half of the first U.S. Open women’s final between Americans since Serena Williams beat Venus Williams in 2002.

Sloane Stephens beat Venus Williams in the first semifinal.

The No. 15 seed Keys beat the 20th-seeded Vandeweghe twice in hard-court events this summer.

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9:30 p.m.

Sloane Stephens has reached her first Grand Slam final, edging Venus Williams 6-1, 0-6, 7-5 in the first of two all-American semifinals.

Stephens became just the fourth unseeded player to reach the U.S. Open women’s final in the Open era, which began in 1968, and the first since Roberta Vinci in 2015.

The third set was tense tennis after two lopsided ones, with Stephens continuously running down balls to win long rallies.

She will face either No. 15 Madison Keys or No. 20 CoCo Vandeweghe.

Williams was trying for her third major final of the year and her first at the U.S. Open since 2002.

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8:15 p.m.

Venus Williams dominated the second set to even the U.S. Open women’s semifinals against Sloane Stephens at one set apiece.

Williams took the set 6-0 after Stephens won the first set 6-1 in just 24 minutes.

It’s the third straight round for both players in which they’ve played a three-set match.

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7:45 p.m.

Sloane Stephens took the first set 6-1 against a mistake-prone Venus Williams in the U.S. Open semifinals.

The unseeded Stephens needed just 24 minutes to move halfway to her first appearance in a Grand Slam final. Williams gave her plenty of help with 17 unforced errors and double-faulted for one of Stephens’ two breaks of serve.

Stephens is trying to become just the fourth unseeded woman to advance to the U.S. Open semifinals in the Open era, which began in 1968. Williams was the first, in 1997.

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7:20 p.m.

Venus Williams and Sloane Stephens have begun the first of two all-American women’s semifinal matches.

The ninth-seeded Williams is trying to reach her third Grand Slam final of the year. She last made the U.S. Open final in 2002.

No. 15 Madison Keys and 20th-seeded CoCo Vandeweghe meet in the second semifinal.

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7 p.m.

U.S. Open semifinalist Juan Martin del Potro and two-time Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova have won the U.S. Open sportsmanship awards.

U.S. Tennis Association chairman and CEO Katrina Adams says del Potro and Kvitova have “not only captivated us at this year’s U.S. Open, but shown incredible class in doing so.”

Del Potro has overcome injuries and illness to reach the men’s semifinals after beating five-time champion Roger Federer on Wednesday. Kvitova lost a close match to Venus Williams in the women’s quarterfinals after missing much of the first half of the season while recovering from hand injuries suffered during a knife attack in the offseason.

Each player received a trophy and a $5,000 donation to the charity of his or her choice. To be eligible, players had to compete in at least two U.S. Open series events, as well as the U.S. Open.

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6:20 p.m.

U.S. Open wheelchair tennis was played on Arthur Ashe Stadium on Thursday for the first time.

The No. 2-seeded team of Britain’s Alfie Hewett and Gordon Reid beat Japan’s Shingo Kunedia and Argentina’s Gustavo Fernandez 6-3, 6-2 in the first match.

American Dana Mathewson and Aniek van Koot the Netherlands then upset women’s No. 2 seeds Yui Kamiji of Japan and Lucy Shuker of Britain 0-6, 6-4, (10-5).

The competition, which follows all able-bodied tennis rules except that the ball can bounce twice, continues through Sunday.

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5:50 p.m.

Billie Jean King will be honored by the U.S. Tennis Association on the 50th anniversary of her “triple crown.”

The ceremony will take place before the U.S. Open women’s singles final Saturday.

In 1967, King won the women’s singles, women’s doubles and mixed doubles titles at the American Grand Slam tournament.

The member of the International Tennis Hall of Fame wound up with a total of 39 major trophies across those three disciplines.

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5:35 p.m.

There will be a first-time U.S. Open men’s doubles championship duo after two upsets in the semifinals.

The fifth-seeded pairing of American twins Bob and Mike Bryan were stopped in their bid for a sixth title at Flushing Meadows and 17th Grand Slam trophy overall, losing 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 to 11th-seeded Spaniards Feliciano Lopez and Marc Lopez.

The two Lopezes, who are not related, won their only major title at the 2016 French Open.

On the other half of the draw, the 12th-seeded team of Horia Tecau of Romania and Jean-Julien Rojer of the Netherlands eliminated No. 1-seeded Henri Kontinen of Finland and John Peers of Australia 1-6, 7-6 (5), 7-5.

Tecau and Rojer have one Grand Slam title, from Wimbledon two years ago.

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5:25 p.m.

All four women’s semifinalists at the U.S. Open are Americans.

It’s the first time that’s happened at Flushing Meadows since 1981. It hasn’t happened at any Grand Slam tournament since Wimbledon in 1985.

No. 9-seeded Venus Williams will play unseeded Sloane Stephens in the first semifinal Thursday night. That will be followed by No. 15 Madison Keys against No. 20 CoCo Vandeweghe.

The 37-year-old Williams is the only member of the quartet who has participated in a Grand Slam singles final. She owns seven major championships, two at the U.S. Open in 2000 and 2001.

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