Serena Williams overcomes slow start, beats Karolina Pliskova to reach U.S. Open semifinals

Serena Williams, fresh off her dominant 6-2, 6-1 win over her sister Venus in the semifinals on Friday, looked off her game early on Tuesday night at Arthur Ashe Stadium in New York City.

Williams was taking on No. 8 Karolina Pliskova in the quarterfinals of the U.S. Open — her 10th straight appearance in the quarterfinals, the most in tournament history.

That sluggish start, though, didn’t last long.

Williams rallied back on Tuesday night, winning eight games in a row to beat Pliskova 6-4, 6-3 in 86 minutes to advance to the semifinals.

Williams fell behind early, and looked visibly frustrated in the first few games after several errors. Pliskova jumped up to a 3-1 lead, and completely shut Williams out in the fourth game. She looked out of it.

The 36-year-old, though, quickly found her groove. After trading games with Pliskova, Williams turned it on and won the next four games to take the first set 6-4.

Williams, finally having found her game, kept it rolling into the second set. She won the first four games — extending her streak to eight straight games — to take a 4-0 lead, completely shutting Pliskova down.

While she gave up two straight games to Pliskova, and then narrowly dropped a third later on, Williams quickly finished her off to take the second set 6-3 and advance to the semifinals.

Up Next

With the win, Williams will take on Latvia’s Anastasija Sevastova in the semifinals. Sevastova, who is the No. 19 seed, knocked off No. 3 Sloane Stephens 6-2, 6-3 on Tuesday.

This post will be updated with more information shortly.

More from Yahoo Sports:
• Angry Nike customers are setting their gear on fire
• Charles Robinson: ‘The most controversial move that Nike has ever made’
• Pete Thamel: Taggart’s FSU debut goes down in flames
• ESPN announcer taken off Washington games