The 26-year-old appeared on course for an equally emphatic victory as Thursday’s night session got underway, taking a quick 2-0 lead with Navarro struggling to find her footing. Navarro found her rhythm with a well-struck forehand return and leveled the set at two games apiece. On the brink of losing a third straight game, Sabalenka regained her composure and earned another break advantage, saving a break point en route to serving out the opening set in under 40 minutes.
Sabalenka and Navarro traded service holds as the second set got underway, but Sabalenka made her push in the fifth game, breaking and holding to put herself two games from victory. With the match hitting the one-hour mark, Navarro nearly faded entirely as she fell behind 15-40 on serve in the seventh game. But she saved two break points and caught fire from there, bringing the Ashe crowd to their feet and breaking Sabalenka to reel off three straight games from the brink of defeat.
Up against an inspired opponent, Sabalenka recovered to force a tiebreaker and shook off an early mini-break deficit in the Sudden Death, executing a deft volley and strong serve to edge ahead 5-2 after the first change of ends. She got to four match points with a brilliant change-up, drawing Navarro to net with a drop shot and putting away the pass.
Stepping in on Navarro’s second serve, she crashed the net and put away the short reply to edge over the finish line in 90 minutes flat.
Standing between Sabalenka and a first US Open title—and third major overall—will be the winner of the second semifinal between No. 6 seed Jessica Pegula and 2023 semifinalist Karolina Muchova. Sabalenka and Pegula last faced off three weeks ago in Cincinnati, while Muchova scored the biggest win of her career over the former No. 1 in the semifinals of 2023 Roland Garros.
