Hot News: Serena Williams Faces Caroline Wozniacki in US Open Women's Final

Serena Williams knows the drill. On Sunday, when she looks across the net during the United States Open women's singles final, she will see a player she knows all too well and a person she absolutely adores. And this time it will not be her sister Venus.

'Serena is one of my best friends,' Caroline Wozniacki, her opponent in the final, said in an interview in late July. 'For a long time. But especially in the last year.'

The week before the Open, Williams said Wozniacki was the person she was closest to in the women's game other than her sister.

'Obviously, lately, we've gotten a lot closer,' Williams added.

It is not that difficult to pinpoint the reason.

'Sometimes things happen in life and you kind of need a friend,' Wozniacki said, 'and she stepped up and was there for me.'

In May, when the golfer Rory McIlroy made the brief call to Wozniacki to cancel their wedding, Williams was busily preparing the bachelorette party. ('I always plan events,' Williams said.) When she heard the news of the breakup, she dropped everything.

'I called Caroline, and we talked for a long time on the phone,' Williams said. 'And it was just like: 'O.K., you know, let's figure this out. Because it's not the end of the world. You know, you're a baby, you're 23. Things will look up.' '

It is a two-way street. Wozniacki said that when Williams was seriously ill in 2011, she visited her friend at her house in Los Angeles.

Both have found something meaningful in the friendship. Wozniacki said the advice that Williams gave after her breakup with McIlroy helped speed her recovery.

'She just told me the truth,' Wozniacki said. 'Honestly, she just told me that it's going to be hard and there's no skipping anything. But when you get to the other side, you're such a stronger person. Obviously, I didn't see that at the time. It had just happened. But now I do feel strong. I know myself much better.' Multimedia Feature: From Ashe to Williams, Rackets of U.S. Open Champions

Wozniacki's professional results in the wake of the split seem to back that up. She won her first tournament of the year, she has a 19-3 record since Wimbledon and she reached her first Grand Slam final in five years when the injured Peng Shuai retired on Friday with Wozniacki leading, 7-6 (1), 4-3.

And Williams said that she admired the way Wozniacki handled the ordeal.

'To this day, she has nothing bad to say about her former fiancé,' Williams, 32, said. 'Which I find really remarkable, and I think that just kind of sums her up. You know, she actually never has anything bad to say about anybody, and that made me a better person. You want to surround yourself with people who are genuinely happy for other people.'

Wozniacki, 24, said she was 17 when she first got to know Venus Williams while playing at an exhibition in Hong Kong before the Australian Open. They played doubles together and apparently enjoyed it so much that Venus asked Wozniacki if she wanted to be her doubles partner again in Qatar a month after the Australian Open. She agreed.

'I think Serena was like, 'Who's this young kid that Venus is talking to?' ' Wozniacki said, laughing. 'I got to know her back then.'

Wozniacki and Serena Williams are familiar with the awkwardness of playing each another. They played two tight, three-set matches this summer; Williams won both.

'If I can play Venus, I can play anybody,' Serena said Friday after her 6-1, 6-3 semifinal victory over Ekaterina Makarova.

Serena, who is not known for her warmth in courting close friends on the tour, has found a nice balance with Wozniacki.

As Serena said: 'You really have to be careful because we have to take our jobs very, very seriously, and you kind of just almost have to be a loner, so to say. It feels good not to always be like that. And I've been fortunate because I've had my sister, and we're super-super close. And so it feels good just to have that relationship with someone else where you can give 100 percent on the court, and at the same time and at the end of the day, we're still friends.'

Regardless of what happens on Sunday, they will see each other after the final. On Tuesday, Serena will host her first fashion show for HSN during New York Fashion Week. Wozniacki said she would not miss it.

'It's going to be my first show, so of course she's going to come and support me,' Williams said. 'She always does.'

Post By http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/07/sports/tennis/serena-williams-faces-caroline-wozniacki-in-us-open-womens-final.html