NEW YORK — Aryna Sabalenka used her usual high-risk, high-reward style of tennis to advance to her second consecutive U.S. Open final on Thursday night, winning the final seven points to defeat Emma Navarro 6-3, 7-6 (2).

No. 2 seed Sabalenka, a 26-year-old Belarusian who has won the last two Australian Opens, missed the championship title by one win at Flushing Meadows last year, losing to Coco Gauff in front of a raucous, partisan crowd at Arthur Ashe Stadium.

This time, Sabalenka got the better of another American opponent, 13th-seeded Navarro – and never let the crowd play too much of a role until things got pretty close in the second set. Knowing she would be playing a player from the United States in this semifinal, Sabalenka joked after her final match that she would try to get her on her side by buying alcohol, saying, “The drinks are on me tonight?”

Navarro didn’t give up in the second set despite trailing for a long time, and she managed a break when Sabalenka served to win 5-4. But in the ensuing tiebreak, with Navarro leading 2-0, Sabalenka took the lead and won every remaining point.

Sabalenka will play another American, No. 6 Jessica Pegula, or unseeded Karolina Muchova of the Czech Republic for the trophy on Saturday. The semifinal between Pegula and Muchova was scheduled for later Thursday under the Ashe floodlights on a cool evening with only a light breeze.

Sabalenka will be competing in a major hardcourt final for the fourth consecutive year. Since the early 2000s, Sabalenka’s fellow Belarusian Victoria Azarenka is the only other woman to have reached the finals of four consecutive hardcourt majors.

Sabalenka is seeking her third Grand Slam singles title, having already won the Australian Open twice (2023, 2024). She is aiming to become the fifth woman to win the Australian Open and the US Open in the same year since 1988, when the Australian Open became a hard-court event.

ESPN Stats & Information and The Associated Press contributed to this report.