Serena Williams was forced to dig deep to secure a 4-6 6-3 6-2 U.S. Open quarter-final victory over unseeded Bulgarian Tsvetana Pironkova on Wednesday.
The victory kept alive her latest bid for a record-tying 24th Grand Slam singles title.
Williams, a six-time champion in New York, struggled with Pironkova’s slice forehand early and was at risk of her earliest U.S. Open exit in 14 years.
But that was until she used her experience to find a way back against a resurgent Pironkova.
“I’m happy to be standing here … because at one point I was pretty close to not being here,” Williams said during the on-court winner’s interview.
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“I keep fighting and that’s one thing that I am super excited about. I never give up.”
For Pironkova, who dropped to 0-5 in career head-to-head meetings with Williams, the loss marked the end of a surprise New York run.
This is in view of the fact that this was her first professional tournament since Wimbledon in 2017.
Pironkova was back after an absence of more than three years, during which she had a baby in early 2018.
She made a nice start as she consolidated a break to go-ahead 4-2 in the first set.
After Williams saved two set-points on serve to pull within 4-5, the Bulgarian held her nerve and secured the opener with a backhand cross-court winner.
In the second, Williams won a 24-point rally.
It helped to break and open up a 5-3 lead and then, after falling behind 15-30 on her serve, fired three consecutive aces to force a decider.
Williams broke to start the third set in a game during which she even hit a left-handed shot, and never looked back as Pironkova suddenly started to run out of gas.
“Definitely (I) was feeling it in my legs,” Williams said of her flat start.
“In the beginning, I was a little bit fatigued for whatever reason. So, obviously I can’t do that if I want to keep winning. So, I am going to try to figure that out.”
Williams has been stuck on 23 Grand Slam singles titles, one shy of Margaret Court’s record, since winning the 2017 Australian Open.
Up next for the 38-year-old Williams, who has been pushed to three sets in her last three victories, will be either Belgian 16th seed Elise Mertens or former world number one Victoria Azarenka of Belarus in Thursday’s semi-final.