Tenth seed Karolina Pliskova sensationally outplayed Serena Williams to reach the US Open final and end the American’s reign as world number one.
The Czech will today face German second seed Angelique Kerber in the final after her historic win over the 22 Grand Slam titles winner.
Williams, 34, double-faulted on match point to lose 6-2, 7-6 (7-5).
The result guarantees that Kerber will overtake Williams at the top of the rankings after the US Open.
Williams had also hoped to win an Open-era record 23rd major singles title.
She remains tied with Steffi Graf for both Grand Slam titles, and the WTA record of 186 successive weeks as world number one.
It will be recalled, that Serena was stunned by lowly-rated Italian Roberta Vinci also in the semi-final of the US Open last year.
“Karolina played great today,” said Williams, who revealed she had been hampered by a sore left knee since earlier in the tournament
“I think if she had played any less then maybe I would have had a chance. So I think I wasn’t at 100 per cent, but I also think she played well. She deserved to win today.”
Australian Open champion, Kerber dumped Denmark’s Caroline Wozniacki 6-4, 6-3 to reach her first US Open final.
“It’s just incredible, it’s a great day,” said Kerber. “To be here in the final for the first time means a lot and to be number one in the world – it sounds amazing.”
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