No.2 seed Aryna Sabalenka clinched a spot in her second straight US Open final with a gritty 6-3, 7-6(2) victory over No.13 seed Emma Navarro in Arthur Ashe Stadium on Thursday night.

US Open: Scores | Draw | Order of play

Former World No.1 Sabalenka, who finished runner-up to Coco Gauff at last year’s US Open, needed 90 minutes to fend off surging American Navarro, who was contesting her first Grand Slam semifinal and pushed the second set into a tiebreak from 5-3 down.

“I worked really hard on my mindset on the match,” Sabalenka said afterwards. “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.”

Sabalenka will face another American in this year’s final: No.6 seed Jessica Pegula. Sabalenka leads the head-to-head 5-2 and is the only person to beat Pegula during this summer’s North American hard-court swing, in the Cincinnati final.

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

Sabalenka moves one win away from becoming the first woman to win both hard-court Grand Slam titles in the same year since Angelique Kerber won the Australian Open and US Open in 2016. Sabalenka won her second straight Australian Open title earlier this year.

Moving ahead in the rivalry: On Thursday night, Sabalenka avenged a loss to Navarro in their previous hard-court meeting, which was at Indian Wells this year. Sabalenka also defeated Navarro on the clay of Roland Garros this season and leads the overall head-to-head 2-1.

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

Rising American: Having said that, Navarro will not be a player ranked outside the Top 10 next Monday. Following her career-best showing at a Slam, 23-year-old Navarro will make her Top 10 debut, with a projected rise from No.12 to No.8.

Match moments: After an early exchange of breaks on Thursday, Sabalenka seemed to have everything under control for the first set-and-a-half. With scintillating power shots from all directions, Sabalenka collected the first set, where her 16 winners doubled Navarro’s eight.

In the second set, Sabalenka broke for 3-2 and served for the match at 5-4. Suddenly, though, Navarro used superb speed and well-timed passing shots to jolt the No.2 seed. A forehand return winner gave Navarro double break point, and she broke for 5-5 after Sabalenka misfired on a backhand.

In the tiebreak, Sabalenka double faulted to fall behind 2-0, and a third set became a distinct possibility. But Sabalenka regrouped, cranked a forehand winner to get on the board in the breaker, and she firmly wrested back the momentum for good.

Sabalenka took a 3-2 lead in the tiebreak by finishing an 18-point rally with a winning volley, and she was unstoppable from there. A commanding smash gave her a seventh straight point to close out the tiebreak, punching her ticket to another US Open final appearance.