Roberta Vinci shocks Serena Williams in US Open

Serena Williams’ bid for just the second-ever Golden Slam was stopped in shocking fashion by unseeded Roberta Vinci.

Serena Williams will have to wait until next year to tie Stefi Graf’s 22 grand slam victories and she’ll have to wait again until next year to attempt another Golden Slam, something only Graf achieved in 1988 after winning all four Grand Slam titles in the same calendar year.

Roberta Vinci, an un-seeded Italian who ranked No. 43 in the world advanced to the US Open finals instead of Williams, who has absolutely dominated the tennis world for the past year. Nobody has really come close to beating Williams as she claimed four-straight major titles but Vinci, who at her beat achieved a world No. 11 ranking in 2013, beat perhaps the greatest women’s tennis player in history, 2-6, 6-4, 6-4.

Vinci, who has dominated doubles competition the past four years with her partner Sara Errani, advanced to her first ever Grand Slam finals match and will do battle with fellow italian Flavia Pennetta, the No. 26-seed in the tournament. Pennetta upset No. 2 Simona Halep in her semifinals match, 6-1, 6-3.

Early in the match it appeared Williams was going to cruise to a victory over Vinci, taking the first set with ease. But she let her opponent linger around the next two sets and was shocked at the end. She tried to come back but it just was not her day, it was not her tournament.

The loss will not change Williams’ standing as the top women’s tennis player in the world, not by a long shot. But it does sting a bit. She had a chance to make history by extending her “Serena Slam” into a calendar Grand Slam and had a chance to make history by tying Graf for the second-most Grand Slams in women’s tennis history, trailing only Margaret Court’s 24 won between 1960 and 1973.

But she still hits the ball harder than anybody else in the world. She still plays as hard as anybody and with more determination. She’ll just have something to strive for next year.

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Corey Johns

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You could say Corey was born to become a sports journalist. His father won a national championship coaching college soccer. His mother is a baseball fanatic who hasn't missed seeing an Orioles game since 1983 (literally, sometimes it's annoying). His great uncle was a big-time boxing promoter and his maternal grandfather was once a department head at the Baltimore Sun. Basically, sports and journalism run through his blood. He played just about every little league sports there was when he was a kid and was a multi-sport athlete in high school; even playing in the first-ever high school sanction Rugby game in the country. Eventually he retired from sports as an undefeated Maryland state Rugby champion as a high school senior. Perhaps lack of athletic talent has more to do with the retirement, but he will tell you that it more had to do with a great desire to jump right into media. Upon his graduation from University of Maryland, Baltimore County as a triple communications major, Corey started the So Much Sports network and has continued to grow his websites and continues to work to make them premier sports media outlets.

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