Serena Williams, the No. 1 seed and defending U.S. Open champion, rallied past fellow American Bethanie Mattek-Sands late Friday at Arthur Ashe Stadium in New York City to win in three sets, the New York Daily News reported.
The 3-6, 7-5, 6-0 victory allows 33-year-old Williams to continue her pursuit of a calendar grand slam. But the win did not come without a slight struggle for Williams against the 101st-ranked Mattek-Sands, 30, who won the first set and nearly caused "a memorable upset," according to the New York Times.
"I just made a lot of errors," Williams told the Times. "I had to play myself in after that."
The win marked "the 31st in a row for Williams in a major tournament dating to last year’s Open," the Times reported, leaving her just four wins from a grand slam. After the match, "Mattek-Sands told Williams that she was rooting for her to make history," according to the news outlet.
Williams advances to play another American, Madison Keys, who beat Agnieszka Radwanska, 6-3, 6-2, in the Grandstand, notes the report.
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Read more at the New York Daily News and the New York Times.