NEW YORK — When things suddenly got quite tight in the second set of Aryna Sabalenka’s US Open semifinal, and the Arthur Ashe Stadium spectators suddenly got quite loud while supporting her American opponent, the 2023 runner-up found herself flashing back to a year ago at the same site.
“I was like, ‘OK, Aryna, you have to stay focused. Stay in your thoughts. Focus on yourself,'” Sabalenka said. “And, yeah, I was thinking a lot.”
The No. 2-seeded Sabalenka moved into her second consecutive final at Flushing Meadows with a strong start and a late surge, taking the last seven points to beat Emma Navarro 6-3, 7-6 (2) on Thursday night with her usual brand of high-risk, high-reward tennis.
Sabalenka, a 26-year-old from Belarus who won each of the past two Australian Opens, came up a victory short of claiming the championship in New York a year ago, when she lost to Coco Gauff in front of a rowdy partisan crowd.
This time, Sabalenka got past another American opponent, the 13th-seeded Navarro — and never let the fans play too much of a role until things got interesting late. Before long, thousands of ticket-holders were saluting Sabalenka for her latest show of mastery on a hard court.
“Well, guys, now you are cheering for me,” Sabalenka said with a laugh during her on-court interview after the match was over. “Well, it’s a bit too late.”
Knowing she would be facing a player from the U.S. in this semifinal, Sabalenka joked after her previous match she would try to sway them to her side by buying booze, saying, “Drinks on me tonight?”
Navarro did not fold in the second set, despite trailing for much of it, and as the noise around her grew, she broke when Sabalenka served for the victory at 5-4.
“I wasn’t ready for the match to be over,” Navarro said.
But in the tiebreaker that followed, Sabalenka took over after Navarro led 2-0, grabbing every point that remained.
“I kind of got my teeth into it there at the end of the second set,” Navarro said, “and I felt I could definitely push it to a third. Wasn’t able to do so.”
Sabalenka will play for the trophy Saturday possibly against another American, No. 6 Jessica Pegula, or unseeded Karolina Muchova of the Czech Republic. The Pegula-Muchova semifinal began later Thursday under the Ashe lights on a cool evening with only the slightest breeze.
“I’m ready to face whoever,” Sabalenka said. “Lesson from last year learned. I really hope I’m going to do a little bit better than I did last year.”
Sabalenka is bidding to become the fifth different woman to win the Australian Open and US Open in the same year since 1988, when the Aussie Open became a hard-court event.
Navarro, who defeated Gauff in the fourth round, is a 23-year-old who was born in New York, grew up in South Carolina and won an NCAA singles title for the University of Virginia in 2021. This was her debut in a Slam semifinal and, while she displayed the skills and steadiness that carried her there, Navarro was not able to keep up with Sabalenka, who was playing in that round at a major for the ninth time.
By the end, Sabalenka had produced 34 winners and 34 unforced errors — punctuating most of her groundstrokes with a yell — and in a fitting bit of symmetry, Navarro had 13 winners and 13 unforced errors.
Sabalenka showed she is not simply a swing-from-the-heels power player, even if that is the foundation of her game.
She delivered one optimally timed return winner to help break for a 4-2 lead early. She offered up two terrifically delicate drop shots to earn points later in that set. When Navarro failed to get a return in play from a 100 mph serve, Sabalenka was halfway to the win.
A break to go up 3-2 seemingly put Sabalenka in charge of the second set, too, but Navarro made a stand. In the end, it wasn’t enough.
“It’s crazy to have come into this tournament … and I was kind of joking a little bit with my team, but a little bit serious, as well, that I was looking to win one match at the US Open, and now to be leaving having made a run and gotten to the semifinals, and now I’m a top-10 player,” said Navarro, who will crack the WTA’s top 10 when the new rankings are released Monday. “It’s pretty crazy, and I think it’s a testament to a lot of hard work.”
Sabalenka has now won 35 of 38 of the sets she has played in majors this season (92.1%). Among women who played 30-plus sets in majors in one year, the last to win 90% of her sets at majors was Justine Henin in 2007.
Sabalenka will be making her fourth straight appearance in a hard-court major final; since the start of 2000, the only other woman to reach the final of four consecutive hard-court majors is Sabalenka’s countrywoman, Victoria Azarenka.
ESPN Stats & Information and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
