Serena looking forward to Keys-Stephens final: 'Hopefully the 1st of many'

New mother Serena Williams is planning to return to the WTA tour at the Australian Open in January, but for now, she's going to enjoy watching the final Grand Slam match of 2017 - between two of her young American countrywomen - from home.

Serena's indomitable presence has loomed so large for so long over the women's tour, and her hiatus this year has opened the door for others whose paths she might otherwise have blocked. Like Keys, who she beat in the Australian Open semis and US Open fourth round in 2015. Or Stephens, who she beat in the fourth rounds of the 2013 US Open and 2015 French Open.

That also includes her older sister Venus, who would've been preparing to play in her third Slam final of the year if not for Stephens' gutsy showing in Thursday's semifinal. But, like their mother Oracene, Serena had no trouble tipping her cap to Venus' vanquisher, familial bias be damned.

For years, Serena was the lone bastion of American tennis supremacy, so it's pretty wild that the US Open produced an all-American final four, without her, for the first time since 1981. Given that Stephens is just 24 and Keys 22, it seems American women's tennis is in good hands, and that this may indeed be the first of many finals between them.