U.S.A.! U.S.A.! U.S.A.!

Just a quick note about what's going on in the U.S. Open tennis tournament in New York. First of all, I must apologize to the U.S. women, who I didn't give a chance of going much further than the Round of 16. Lo and behold, the semi-finals, played today, include both Jessica Pegula (pictured), who handily upended top-seeded Iga Swiatek of Poland yesterday; and Emma Navarro, who beat Paula Badosa of Spain in straight sets on Tuesday. Wow!

The semi's today are Navarro against Screamin' Aryna Sabalenka from Belarus, and then Pegula against Karolina Muchova of Czechia. Muchova played yesterday, beating Beatriz Haddad Maia of Brazil. Sabalenka made quick work of Olympic gold medalist Qinwen Zheng on Tuesday.

I didn't think they had it in them, but Pegula and Navarro have been rock solid to this point. Now the pressure's turned up to 11. We'll see if either – or could you imagine both? – of them can make it to Saturday's championship match.

Meanwhile, the American dudes are being dudes! On Tuesday Frances Tiafoe defeated Grigor Dimitrov of Bulgaria, who retired due to injury, and Taylor Fritz took a shocking four-setter from Sascha Zverev of Germany. Fritz and Big Fo will play each other in semi's tomorrow, and so there will be one American man in the finals. He will play either top-seeded Jannik Sinner of Italy, who snuffed out the Russian Daniil Mevedev, or Brit Jack Draper, who eliminated Alex de Minaur of Australia. Sinner is a heavy favorite against Draper. The final is on Sunday.

Four players out of eight in the semifinals: It's heady stuff for the young Americans. Let me not jinx it by saying more.