Serena Williams beat Dinara Safina comfortably in two sets in the second semi-final. How impressed were you by Williams's form?
NH: If her past performances are anything to go by, she will be the next US Open champion. She reached a new level in her victory over her sister, Venus, in the quarter-final and maintained it against Safina. Safina broke in the first game and that seemed to upset Williams. After that, she stepped up and played excellent tennis in difficult conditions, with the swirling wind disprupting players' ball tossess and causing repeated delays. I have not seen her play as well for quite a while.

Williams will play Jelena Jankovic in the final after she defeated Elena Dementieva in two sets in the other semi. Does Jankovic have the game to challenge Williams?
NH: Yes, it has the makings of an excellent final. Jankovic had to recover from a break down in each set but that's the way it is with her: she doesn't seem to have easy games. She played excellently overall, giving her best performance of the tournament. However, while she is a tremendous player, and brings much to a tournament, including charm and colour, you cannot but see the final going Serena's way. This will be Jankovic's first grand-slam tournament and she will be playing against a partisan New York crowd supporting Serena. She, conversely, is very experienced and rarely disappoints on a big occasion.

Reports say rain could delay Andy Murray's semi-final against Rafael Nadal on Saturday. What have the organisers planned?
NH: The forecasts say it will rain solidly overnight, but could break for two to three hours in the morning, so the plan at the moment is for Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic to play their semi-final at 11am local time [4pm BST] and for Murray and Nadal to go on court afterwards. However, there is talk that they may run the two games simultaneously, bringing the Murray match forward - though no earlier than midday - so that it does not run on to Sunday. That is a situation the organisers simply could not afford to happen: that the second semi-final concludes on Sunday in the morning, and the final takes place after it.