Serena Williams' Third-Set Comeback Extends Grand Slam Try at US Open

Even if her latest troublesome first set had finished only an hour earlier, it seemed a distant memory by the time Serena Williams smacked a cross-court forehand passing winner on the run and wound up doing the splits behind the baseline.

She leaned forward, yelled and shook both fists, victory nearly hers.

Yes, Williams knows as well as anyone that you can't count her out, no matter the deficit, no matter how the pressure might be mounting as she closes in on completing tennis' first true Grand Slam in 27 years.

Eight times this season at major tournaments, Williams has dropped the opening set. Eight times, she has won.

The latest comeback came in the third round of the U.S. Open on Friday night, when Williams figured out a way to deal with a tricky opponent and get her own game going before it was too late, eventually emerging to grab the last eight games for a 3-6, 7-5, 6-0 victory over American wild-card entry Bethanie Mattek-Sands.

"Getting out of it so many times definitely helps me," Williams said. "It's definitely not something I want to do, though. But, hey, a win's a win, I guess."

Sure is. Williams ran her Grand Slam record to 24-0 in 2015, and 31-0 since her last defeat at a major, at Wimbledon in June 2014.

The No. 1-ranked Williams is trying to become the first tennis player since Steffi Graf in 1988 to win all four Grand Slam tournaments in the same season. And now that milestone is four wins away.

At 5-all in the second set, Mattek-Sands was two games from completing the upset. She would not win another game.

"She's a great closer," Mattek-Sands said. "Always has been."

Williams, who is 33, was asked whether she remembers watching Graf on television back then.

"Seriously? I mean, I'm old, but come on. Geez," Williams said, rolling her eyes. "I mean ... I was 6. Get serious."

Add in her title last year in New York, and Williams is bidding for a fifth consecutive Grand Slam title and 22nd overall, which would equal Graf for the most in the professional era, which began in 1968, and second-most in history behind Margaret Court's 24.

Williams also can become the first woman since Chris Evert in 1975-78 to win four U.S. Opens in a row.

Copyright AP - Associated Press
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