US Open 2024: Top Four Seeds Reach Women's Semi-Finals

Coco Gauff needed only two words to sum up the moment.

"Oh, wow."

On a sweltering New York fortnight that has chewed up seeds for fun in recent years, the US Open suddenly looks old-school at the sharp end. For the first time since 1975, the top four seeds in the women’s draw have all muscled their way into the semi-finals. No chaos, no shock interlopers. Just Aryna Sabalenka, Elena Rybakina, Jessica Pegula and Gauff, the game’s current power axis, all surviving three-set battles to set up a last four that feels like a statement.

Former British number one Annabel Croft could barely hide her delight on BBC Radio 5 Live.

"How amazing - it doesn't get much better than that does it? It has felt fantastic the whole tournament - I just feel like I've been more enthused about looking forward to the match-ups this Grand Slam than any I can remember."

She’s not alone. This is not just a strong semi-final line-up; it’s a rare alignment. The last time the top four ranked women all reached a Grand Slam semi-final was Wimbledon in 2009. For a tour that has prided itself on depth but often been accused of volatility, this feels different. It feels like order, but with edge.

Since the start of 2020, 13 different women have lifted Grand Slam singles trophies. The men, in the same stretch, have produced just seven champions. Variety has been the calling card of the women’s game. Now the heavyweights are holding their ground.

"I just feel like there's lots of really big names now, big personalities going up against each other and it's really exciting," Croft said. "We've been blessed with the amount of intriguing matches we've had. You're seeing these warriors out on court."

Sabalenka v Pegula: A Rivalry With a Sharp Edge

Top seed Aryna Sabalenka, two-time defending US Open champion and still the woman to beat on this court, opens Thursday’s semi-final slate against Jessica Pegula, the American who knows her game as well as anyone.

They have played 13 times. They know each other’s strengths, each other’s tells, each other’s scars.

Two of those meetings have come here in New York in back-to-back years, and both times Sabalenka has stood in Pegula’s way. She snatched last year’s semi-final after fighting back from the brink, then returned 12 months later to deny Pegula a first major title in the 2024 final.

Pegula doesn’t shy away from the dynamic.

"It's fun to look at it like a rivalry. I think that's what motivates me," she said. "I know that she's definitely pushed me to become a better player, so I always respect and appreciate that aspect of our rivalry."

She has beaten Sabalenka four times on the WTA Tour. The problem is the stage. Doing it at Grand Slam level remains the barrier she has not yet broken.

Pegula calls it a "hurdle" she must overcome. Sabalenka calls it a challenge she relishes.

"I'm loving playing against her because it's a battle, because it's a fight, and I love being under pressure and going through tough challenges," said the Belarusian, who is into her first semi-final since losing to Pegula at the Berlin Open in June.

Pegula arrived in New York with the hotter recent form, having reached the finals in Washington and Cincinnati. Sabalenka arrived with history on her mind. No woman has won three straight US Open titles since Serena Williams completed her hat-trick in 2014. Sabalenka is two wins away from joining that company.

Pegula knows the numbers, and she knows the aura that comes with them.

"I know she hasn't maybe had the best results this summer, but I know that she has a lot of confidence playing here at this tournament, and she's going for a three-peat," Pegula said.

One of them walks off Arthur Ashe Stadium with the rivalry reshaped. The other walks off still chasing.

Rybakina v Gauff: Power, Poise and a New Number One

If the first semi-final is about a rivalry, the second is about a shift in power.

By reaching the last four, second seed Elena Rybakina has already guaranteed she will become world number one on Monday, ending Sabalenka’s 99-week stay at the top. Almost two years at the summit, gone in a single fortnight.

Rybakina, though, refuses to dress it up.

For her, the ranking is "just a number". The target that matters is a third Grand Slam title, and she knows the coronation will feel hollow if it arrives on the back of a semi-final or final defeat.

"It's never quite the same if you become world number one having lost a Grand Slam final or semi-final just beforehand, so she will be trying to cap off an absolutely perfect couple of weeks by winning the title," BBC Radio 5 Live tennis correspondent Russell Fuller said.

Standing between Rybakina and that perfect script is Coco Gauff, the American 22-year-old who has already lived one New York dream and is trying to write another.

Gauff lifted the US Open trophy in 2023. Then came two stumbles: back-to-back fourth-round exits that reminded her how quickly this city can turn. This year, she insists, feels different.

"Sometimes you're just so focused on the now, now, now, because you want it now, and obviously you want to take advantage of your opportunities," she said. "In the grand scheme of things, [I'm] definitely sitting here in a different mindset and perspective than I was last year.

"It inspires me a little bit more to keep working, as I see how much I have improved in a year."

The numbers tell a story of their own. Gauff leads the head-to-head 2-1. Yet the most recent chapter belongs to Rybakina, who came from a set down to beat the American in last month’s Canadian Open semi-finals, unleashing the kind of serving barrage that can make even the best defenders look helpless.

Gauff knows what’s coming.

"I'm going to have some aces hit on me and some winners hit on me, but I'm going to keep fighting and give it my all. That's all I can do," she said.

She will also have something Rybakina will not: a New York crowd that roars for every sprint, every scramble, every fist pump. Arthur Ashe Stadium leans hard into its favourites, and few command that space quite like Gauff.

Four women, four top seeds, four different storylines converging on one night in Queens. A reigning champion chasing a three-peat. A home hope trying to reclaim her court. A new number one on the brink. A perennial contender desperate to smash through her ceiling.

For years, the women’s game has been defined by its unpredictability. Now the giants have held firm. The question is no longer whether the big names will reach the latter stages.

It’s which one will own this era.