Serena now step closer to No. 24

NEW YORK — There’s no crowd at the U.S. Open this year to pull for Serena Williams and try to push her to victory.

So she provided her own encouragement in a tough fourth-round match Monday.

Shouting at herself point after point, Williams came back from a third-set deficit against a woman she lost to less than two weeks ago, and took another step closer to Grand Slam title No. 24 by beating Maria Sakkari 6-3, 6-7 (6), 6-3 at Flushing Meadows.

Williams, who turns 39 this month, reached the quarterfinals for a 12th consecutive U.S. Open appearance.

When the match ended, Williams turned and yelled toward her husband, who stood at his front-row seat and yelled right back.

How tight was this contest? The 15th-seeded Sakkari — who was trying to become the first Greek woman to reach a major quarterfinal — hit more aces than Williams, 13-12, and more total winners, 35-30.

It was a rematch from Aug. 25, when Williams faded after building a lead and lost in three sets to Sakkari at the Western & Southern Open, a hard-court tournament usually held in Ohio but moved to the U.S. Open site as part of a two-tournament “controlled environment” without spectators amid the coronavirus pandemic.

“Of course I thought about (the loss), but ever so little, because it’s a completely different match, completely different scenario, completely different moment,” Williams said.

In the earlier one, Williams’ legs were cramping by the end, and she blamed herself for that situation, memorably declaring: “I put myself in a bad situation. It’s like dating a guy that you know sucks.”

That setback made the American 3-2 since tennis returned from its COVID-19 hiatus, all three-setters.

And since? She is 4-0 at the U.S. Open.