US Open Tennis 2016: Women’s Semifinal TV Schedule, Start Times and Picks

A spot in the finals of the 2016 U.S. Open will be on the line Thursday night when the last four women take the court in a semifinal round loaded with stars.

Will the tournament’s top two seeds, Serena Williams and Angelique Kerber, win to set up a colossal final or will Karolina Pliskova and Caroline Wozniacki force upsets and continue their stellar runs? Each contest looks to be a close matchup, which should lead to some fabulous tennis.

ESPN will air the action from 7 to 11 p.m. Take a look below at the start times, courtesy of ESPN, and the picks for the semifinal affairs.

In her quest to capture an astonishing 23rd Grand Slam title, Williams has been great thus far at Flushing Meadows, New York. She breezed through the first four rounds without dropping a set before running into some trouble in the quarterfinals against No. 5 Simona Halep, her first ranked opponent in the tournament.

Williams lost the second set and had to fight off several late pushes on game points from Halep to finally put her away in the third frame. Against a strong defensive opponent in Halep, Williams committed a personal-high 43 unforced errors in this tournament. Following the match, she expressed that she needs to cut down on mistakes, per espnW’s Johnette Howard.

“I didn’t play the same match in the second [set] that I did in the first,” Williams said. “That’s what makes me really calm. I feel like I can play so much better. I think everyone here knows I can play better.”

Serena cannot afford similar types of lapses against Pliskova, who rallied to beat Venus Williams in the quarterfinal. 

Pliskova, 24, is an emerging star in the sport who can play a similar power game to Williams. She has earned more than half of her points when holding serve in four of her five matches this tournament …

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