NEW YORK: No. 2 seed Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus is back in the US Open final after stymieing No. 13 Emma Navarro 6-3, 7-6 (2) in their semifinal showdown today in New York.
Sabalenka had leads of 4-2 and 5-3 in the second set before her upstart American opponent rallied to take a 6-5 advantage.
Sabalenka led 40-0 in the 12th game and saw Navarro bring the score to deuce before she won the game and forced a tiebreaker.
There, Navarro won the first two points – the second on a Sabalenka double faulted.
Sabalenka then stormed back, making multiple athletic plays and smashing the match-winning shot behind Navarro.
Both players served exceptionally well in the second set, with Navarro putting 78 per cent of her first serves in play and Sabalenka succeeding on 74 per cent.
But Sabalenka had five of her eight aces in the second set, while Navarro was held to one ace on the night.
Sabalenka had 34 winners with 34 unforced errors; Navarro posted 13 winners and 13 unforced errors.
"(Navarro) is such a great player," Sabalenka said in her on-court interview. "A really tough opponent. I'm really happy to get through this difficult semifinal."
A two-time Australian Open champion last year and this year, Sabalenka is vying for a sweep of the hard-court majors this year.
In last year's US Open final, Sabalenka lost to another home-country-backed player, Coco Gauff.
She will face either another American, No. 6 seed Jessica Pegula, or unseeded Czech Karolina Muchova in tomorrow's final (Sept 7). Pegula and Muchova played late last night (Sept 5).
Looking ahead to this year's final, Sabalenka said, "Lesson from last year (was) learned. I really hope I'm going to do a little bit better than I did last year."
She added, "I worked really hard on my mindset. ... I think I made really huge improvement on that calmness, on that crucial moments.
"Even if things are not working well for me, I still keep doing right things and I'm staying in control. I'm really proud, I'm actually really proud of myself that I was able to get to the point when I'm in control of my emotions."
Navarro produced her longest run at a Grand Slam event, guaranteeing she will make her debut in the top 10 of the WTA rankings next week.
The 23-year-old, born in New York, was a former NCAA singles champion at Virginia and has had a breakout season on tour.