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Venus Williams and Sloane Stephens meet Thursday night (7 p.m. ET, ESPN/WatchESPN) in the first All-American women's semifinal at the US Open since 2002. These two face off with vastly different track records.  At 37 years and 85 days old, Williams is the fourth-oldest women's major semifinalist in the Open Era. She is aiming to be the oldest women's major champion in the Open Era. It is the 23rd Grand Slam semifinal appearance of her career. Williams is looking for her third major final of the season, after reaching the final at both the Australian Open and Wimbledon. The only time in her career she has reached that many major finals in a season was 2002 (lost all three). It has been a while since Williams won a major title, as 36 majors have gone since she won Wimbledon in 2008. If she wins at the US Open, she would hold the mark for the greatest time between winning major titles. By contrast, Stephens will be making her second major semifinal appearance, and first since the 2013 Australian Open. She is the first American woman not named Venus or Serena Williams to reach the US Open semifinals since 2004 (Lindsay Davenport and Jennifer Capriati). Shortly after she did so this week, CoCo Vandeweghe and Madison Keys also reached the semis. Stephens is ranked No. 83 in the WTA Rankings, which is tied for the fourth-lowest ranked woman to reach the US Open semifinals since the rankings were introduced in 1975. After missing nearly a year due to an injury she was ranked at No. 934 in the world as recently as Aug. 7. This is only the second matchup between the two. Stephens won the previous encounter, which came in the first round at the French Open in 2015.
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