Serena Williams marched into the semifinals of the US Open for the ninth consecutive time with an assured 6-4 6-3 win over eighth seed Karolina Pliskova Tuesday in New York.
It is the first time the six-time champion has beaten a top-10 opponent since returning from maternity leave, CNN reported.
The victory ensured the American got some measure of revenge for her 2016 US Open semifinal loss against the Czech tennis player.
The 36-year-old Williams overcame a 4-2 deficit in the first set to see off Pliskova in one hour and 23 minutes and reach the last four at Flushing Meadows for the 12th time in her career.
Williams -- aiming to win a first grand slam since giving birth to her daughter last September to tie Margaret Court’s all-time record of 24 major wins -- will next play Latvia’s Anastasija Sevastova, who beat defending champion Sloane Stephens 6-2 6-3 earlier Tuesday.
She struggled at the start of an error-strewn first set -- in which she made 22 of her 30 unforced errors -- before going on an eight-game run to secure victory over the 2016 finalist.
Taking down Pliskova, who enjoyed a brief spell as world No. 1 in 2017, was Williams’ toughest test of the tournament so far, having already dispatched her sister, Venus -- seeded one higher than Serena at 16 -- and the unseeded Estonian Kaia Kanepi, Carina Witthoeft of Germany and Poland’s Magda Linette.
Her last-16 match against Kanepi is the only time any of Williams’ matches thus far have gone beyond two sets.
Though her ranking suffered due to her truncated 2017 season and she came to Flushing Meadows ranked 28th in the world, Williams’ dazzling form means she’ll be confident of rising up again.
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