Serena Williams' serve was broken for the first time at this year's US Open. Twice, in fact. She dropped a set for the first time in the tournament, too, pushed to the brink by Simona Halep in the quarterfinals.
In a match filled with fantastic shotmaking and enthralling exchanges, neither player budged until Williams righted herself in the third set to emerge with a 6-2, 4-6, 6-3 victory over Halep on Wednesday night to get back to the semifinals at Flushing Meadows.
The No 5 Halep, the 2014 French Open runner-up, was the first seeded player Williams faced in the draw.
"I'm glad I got tested," Williams said. "Her level really picked up in the second, but I had some opportunities that I didn't take. So what I gather from that is I really could have played better in that second set and maybe had an opportunity to win in straights. If anything, that's the biggest silver lining I take."
Halep staved off all 12 break points held by Williams in the second set and forced a third. "I wasn't very happy about that, but I tried not to let that get me down," Williams said about all the chances she let slip away. "I tried to stay positive and I knew that if I did, I could just stay in the match."
Right at the start of the third set, Halep held two break points at 15-40, but Williams came through to lead 1-0. Otherwise, Halep said, "The story of the match would have been different."
Instead, Williams converted the only break chance she would get — or need — in the deciding set to go ahead 3-1, and was on her way.
She finished with 18 aces, a 50-20 edge in total winners, and won the point on 26 of her 32 trips to the net.
Not bad for someone who entered the US Open with questions about a sore right shoulder that began bothering her after she won Wimbledon in July.
"I don't really like coming to the net, to be honest, but I'm good at the net, I guess," Williams said. "I guess I've got to do what I'm good at."
She is bidding for her seventh title at Flushing Meadows and 23rd overall at a major tournament.
Her opponent Thursday will be 10th-seeded Karolina Pliskova of the Czech Republic, who beat the 34-year-old American's older sister, Venus, in the fourth round, then eliminated 18-year-old Ana Konjuh of Croatia 6-2, 6-2 on Wednesday to reach the first major semifinal of her career.