she had a couple of opportunities during that rally to move in, take the ball in the air. chose to wait. it worked out. john: she wants to stamp her authority on this match early. an early come on. john: looked like it caught the outside of the line. bill: serena with the early break. a big moment in the career of sara errani this spring in paris. semifinals at the french open.

[closed captioning made possible by cbs sports, a division of cbs broadcasting, division of cbs broadcasting, inc.] [the captioning on this program is provided as an independent service of the national captioning institute, inc., which is solely responsible for the accurate and complete transcription of program content. cbs, its parent and affiliated companies, and their respective agents and divisions are not responsible for the accuracy or completeness of any transcription or for any errors transcription or for any errors in transcription.] bill: championship weekend at the u.s. open here in new york. women's semifinals. victoria azarenka won a battle earlier against maria sharapova. the bryan brothers won their 12th grand slam men's doubles championship to start the day.

now it's serena williams and sara errani just under way here in new york. 15-0, 2-0. john: she hasn't unloaded yet on her serve but she sure did on that forehand. mary: when she's moving as well as she's done in this tournament, she can do this. she can really hit to anywhere from anywhere. bill: seven winners already. john: that serve is right on the line. how can you cover these serves? it's policy be.

bill: errani will challenge so we'll have a chase review. it did just catch the line. slight edge to serena, total slight edge to serena, total aces. bill: that was a plucky point. mary: it was. i'm telling you. that's one of her best qualities.

john: see how well she moves. saying. look at the scores of today's matches on arthur ashe stadium. and she's a good volleyer. so she should try to get to the net. easier said than done when you're playing serena williams. bill: 40-15. bill: tried the drop shot but couldn't convert it. so serena with the hold, off to so serena with the hold, off to a quick start. are we there yet? [ male announcer ] it's the age-old question of travel. the same one we ask ourselves every day. is it the strongest, the most efficient? have we created the kind of vehicle to move not just people... but an industry forward? are we there yet? are we really? [ male announcer ] are we there yet?

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because machines seek help before they're broken. and don't when they're not. that's what i'm working on. i'm an ibmer. let's build a smarter planet. bill: will ferrell in attendance. bill: will ferrell in john: that first serve there was 84. it came back at about 100. bill: 0-15. john: you get an idea early what sara errani is up against.

mary: pablo lazano is actually a spaniard. errani does a lot of her training in spain. he's also david ferrer's coach so he's having a great tournament here for himself. they're good friends, known each other forever. john: don't forget to credit javier who has been with him for a long time. mary: 12 years. bill: to get realtime scores app stats, shazam powered by i.b.m. john: sara errani's first serve percentage for the term has been about 83. you can see why.

she just kicks it in. like starting a point. mary: it's a doubles serve, isn't it? nice high percentage, good kick, good placement but get the feeling she'd like to have her doubles partner on the court with her right now, going up against serena. she keeps using the word focused to describe what she knows she needs to do to win this for a fourth time. she has shown it two straight weeks. john: sure doesn't look like wearisome is going to be a problem tomorrow night. mary: sam stosur last year broke serena five times and serena only served at 52%. that was one of her big that was one of her big problems.

mary: that's how hard errani's going to have to work. and try to get serena to be and try to get serena to be impatient. mary: try to keep her off balance with all of her balance with all of her variety.

bill: talk about david vs. goliath. mary: she got in trouble last year against stosur. for yelling before the ball was -- she hit it there after she'd won the point. against stosur she had a bit of a meltdown, didn't she? because she said, come on, before the ball had played out. bill: that was her 10th winner. there's another break. john: that kick serve also is that she falls to her left. just opens the door for serena there. we talked about this, when she played in the quarter finals. bill: sara errani against her best friend and doubles partner. that there was just, thank goodness that's over.

mary: vinci was happier for her than she allowed herself to be. bill: that was nice. getting to the quarter finals at the u.s. open. mary: absolutely. this is errani's first ever semi. at the u.s. open. they're in the doubles final. john: she laid into that at john: she laid into that at 122, long. john: 4land 0 up, you can afford to go for that type of

shot. mary: she just didn't have her feet set on that one. tried to kind of rush it a little bit. take it before it bounced all the way up. john: have to beat errani at her own game. mary: yeah. john: she's already won one match 0-0. has yet to lose a game here so has yet to lose a game here so far. bill: serena won her 63rd match at the u.s. open with that quarter final victory.

that means over the course of the last week and a half, she's passed both venus and lindsay davenport in the all-time u.s. open list. john: she doesn't have experience out here, errani's such a huge stadium. she's really having problems getting anything going. already overwhelmed. just so much power. bill: 40-15. mary: those winners from serena are coming from everywhere. her serves, her returns, her forehands, her backhands. utterly balanced, composed attack. another deuce. another deuce. bill: so

bill: sara errani serving to get on a the board against serena williams. serena has bond every -- has won every game so far. 0-5. john: sara errani admires david ferrer, which you can

understand. mary had mentioned her coaches helped david as well. one thing that ferrer developed is a pretty darn good serve. for a guy only about 5 i. but -- 5'9". but look at this. that's the best shot she hit tonight. serena decided to move forward and then had to back pedal, back off. that's an excellent shot with the one hand. bill: 37 of the last 41 games

-- won 37 of the last 41 games. mary: that was not the case when she won wimbledon. serena had a much harder time. had to struggle against xi. that went 9-7 in the third round, in the fourth round against vet have a, 7-5 the -- svetiva. then later to win olympic gold, this is how she was playing. bill: serena also has the least amount of time on court coming into the semifinals, just five hours and 43 minutes. that was about two hours less than maria sharapova at this than maria sharapova at this stage. mary: she loves paris.

she's got a place there. he's got a tennis academy close to paris. he's been doing some traveling with her. helping her out. that's her hitting partner next to him. he's there all the time. he works very hard with serena. to keep her doing things like that with the ball. mary: the chance now for errani to get on the board. this is only 63 miles per hour. she would have liked it heavier and deeper. it got up around her ears and -- bill: five or six feet inside

the base line. john: she could stand at the service line on the second service line on the second serve. bill: errani hanging in there and she gets on the board. john: got toed a higher her effort -- got to admire her effort. bill: 27 minutes in. think what about serena has done on this surface since the start of the hard court season last year. serena's 69-5.

bill: pressing the action. errani passes her. john: she hit that swinging volley right back to the center of the court. errani just blocked it nicely crosscourt with that angle. bill: 15-15. john: good idea to open the court up. she can hit a huge first serve up the middle. so errani's got to be aware of that. she just can't get anything on

the ball. she's lucky if she gets a racket on it. bill: two set points for bill: two set points for serena. john: errani's moved way over to her right. something tells me there's going to be a big one up the middle here. take the first set.

bill: still set point. bill: 30 minutes and serena takes the opening set takes the opening set convincingly 6-1.

bill: our tournament summary, andy roddick beat the juan carlos ferre errow to win his only grand slam title back in 2003. serena, only woman not to lose a set to the stage. only 17 games total as she dropped. and victoria azarenka advances to her second grand slam final of the year beating maria of the year beating maria sharapova. are we there yet? are we there yet? [ male announcer ] it's the age-old question of travel. the same one we ask ourselves every day. is it the strongest, the most efficient? have we created the kind of vehicle to move not just people... but an industry forward? are we there yet? are we really? [ male announcer ] are we there yet? we are, for now. introducing the all-new seven passenger gl. mercedes-benz. the best or nothing.

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bill: eva longoria among those in the serena williams players box. perhaps texting someone. the start of the second set. john: that's probably the best serve she's hit today and still she was on the full run off the return. a grueling task here for sara errani. bill: serving at 88% but winning only 33% of her first serve points. john: one of those days when second serve points won is not that important.

>> you have to show immediate interest right away. you looked at it and, no, you missed a shot -- >> seriously. i tell you. >> i was looking at you. i was looking at you and you played shot and then said, now that i missed -- bill: she's saying, there is no gray area. mary: thank you, thank you. bill: not allowing her to linger, making the decision to challenge. mary: chair umpire of the day. bill: that happened in the ferrer match yesterday. an umpire did that a couple of times. john: he was right as well. i hate to give these guys credit. bill: 15-30.

john: could there be errani with the lead? with the lead? >> fault. bill: serena off both wings. bill: serena off both wings. break point. john: safe to say the power differential fairly significant. just can't get anything on the just can't get anything on the serve.

>> out. bill: 75-mile-per-hour first serve. she earns the point and deuce. mary: errani wins her matches by throwing her whole game at her opponents. but serena williams isn't allowing her to do that. she's under immediate pressure, whether serena's returning or serving. look at that. oh, missed it.

she's angry. she hasn't missed much. but she wanted this one right here. bill: she didn't miss there. john: it's like batting practice. mary: serena's got twice the winners as unforced errors for the whole tournament. and she's playing that hard and that clean. the errors in this game keeping errani alive.