No. 2 seed Aryna Sabalenka secured her place in the second consecutive US Open final with a hard-fought 6-3, 7-6(2) victory over No. 13 seed Emma Navarro on Thursday night at Arthur Ashe Stadium.

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Former world number one Sabalenka, who finished runner-up to Coco Gauff at last year’s US Open, needed 90 minutes to fend off the onrushing American Navarro, who was playing in her first Grand Slam semifinal and forced the second set into a tiebreak after trailing 3-5.

Hard court expertise: With this victory, 26-year-old Sabalenka becomes the first woman to reach back-to-back US Open finals since Serena Williams in 2018 and 2019. Sabalenka has reached all four Grand Slam hard court finals in the past two seasons.

Sabalenka is just one win away from becoming the first woman to win both Grand Slam hardcourt titles in the same year since Angelique Kerber won the Australian Open and US Open in 2016. Sabalenka won her second consecutive Australian Open title earlier this year.

Advancing in the Rivalry: On Thursday night, Sabalenka avenged a loss to Navarro in their last meeting on hard court, which took place this year in Indian Wells. Sabalenka also defeated Navarro on the clay court at Roland Garros this season and leads the aggregate score 2-1.

Sabalenka has now won 28 consecutive Grand Slam hard-court matches against players ranked outside the top 10, the longest such winning streak since Victoria Azarenka won 29 Grand Slam hard-court matches against players ranked outside the top 10 between the 2012 and 2014 Australian Open.

Aspiring American: Still, Navarro will not be a player ranked outside the top 10 come Monday. After her best Grand Slam performance of her career, the 23-year-old Navarro will make her debut in the top 10 and is expected to rise from No. 12 to No. 8.

Game moments: After an early break exchange on Thursday, Sabalenka seemed to have everything under control in the first set and a half. With brilliant power shots from all directions, Sabalenka took the first set, hitting 16 winners to double Navarro’s eight.

In the second set, Sabalenka broke to 3-2 and served to level the score at 5-4. But suddenly Navarro used her superior speed and well-timed passing shots to unsettle the No. 2 seed. A forehand return winner gave Navarro a double break point and she broke to level the score at 5-5 after Sabalenka missed a backhand shot.

In the tiebreak, Sabalenka fell behind 0-2 due to a double fault, and a third set was certainly possible. But Sabalenka pulled herself together, hit a forehand winner in the tiebreak and finally regained the lead.

Sabalenka took a 3-2 lead in the tiebreak by capping an 18-point rally with a winning volley and was unstoppable from there. A confident smash gave her a seventh point in a row and ended the tiebreak, qualifying for the US Open final once again.

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