US Open: Aryna Sabalenka beats Emma Navarro to reach her second consecutive final in New York

NEW YORK (AP) — Aryna Sabalenka moved into her second consecutive U.S. Open ultimate by taking the final seven factors and beating Emma Navarro 6-3, 7-6 (2) on Thursday night time along with her ordinary model of high-risk, high-reward tennis.

The No. 2-seeded Sabalenka, a 26-year-old from Belarus who received every of the previous two Australian Opens, got here up a victory in need of claiming the championship at Flushing Meadows a yr in the past, when she misplaced to Coco Gauff in entrance of a loud partisan crowd at Arthur Ashe Stadium.

This time, Sabalenka received previous one other American opponent, the Thirteenth-seeded Navarro — and by no means let the spectators play an excessive amount of of a task till issues received fairly tight within the second set. Realizing she can be going through a participant from the U.S. on this semifinal, Sabalenka joked after her earlier match she would attempt to sway them to her facet by shopping for booze, saying, ” Drinks on me tonight? “

Navarro didn’t fold within the second set, regardless of trailing for a lot of it, and she or he broke when Sabalenka served for the victory at 5-4. However within the tiebreaker that adopted, after Navarro led 2-0, Sabalenka took over, grabbing each level that remained.

Sabalenka will play for the trophy on Saturday towards one more American, No. 6 Jessica Pegula, or unseeded Karolina Muchova of the Czech Republic. The Pegula-Muchova semifinal was scheduled for later Thursday below the Ashe lights on a cool night with solely the slightest breeze.

For Muchova, that was going to be her fourth look within the ultimate 4 at a Grand Slam event, together with runs to that stage in New York and to the ultimate of the French Open final yr. Pegula had been 0-6 in Grand Slam quarterfinals till eliminating No. 1 Iga Swiatek, a five-time main champion, in straight units Wednesday night time.

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AP tennis: https://apnews.com/hub/tennis

Howard Fendrich, The Related Press