Two points from defeat against Venus Williams at the US Open, Sloane Stephens summoned her best strokes when she needed them the most to reach a Grand Slam final for the first time.
Stephens was so close to defeat before taking the last three games of a back-and-forth semifinal at Flushing Meadows, edging seven-time major champion Williams 6-1 0-6 7-5 on Thursday.
At 37, Williams was attempting to become the oldest woman to win a Grand Slam title in the Open era, which dates to 1968. She was trying to reach her third major final of this season, something she last did 15 years ago.
Williams' first title match in New York came in her US Open debut in 1997. Stephens was four at the time.
And Williams was quite near to beating Stephens. With Williams ahead 5-4, and Stephens serving at 30-all, they engaged in a 25-stroke point - Stephens conjured up a backhand passing winner down the line, then wheeled and pumped her fists.
At 5-all, Stephens broke with the help of a lob winner that drew a standing ovation from the crowd, and a full-sprint get of a short ball that she turned into a "How did she do that?!" winner at an impossible angle to love 30.
Soon enough, Stephens was serving out the biggest win of her career - and of her impressive comeback from surgery on her left foot in late January. She returned to the tour at Wimbledon in July, losing in the first round, and lost her next match, too. Her ranking, which reached a high of No. 11 in 2013, dropped out of the top 900.
But since then, Stephens has won 14 of 16 matches.
"I have no words to describe what I'm feeling, what it took to get here, just the journey I've been on, I have no words," said Stephens.
"When I started my comeback if somebody told me I was going to make two semis and a grand slam final, I would probably have passed out, which is what I feel like right now. I don't know how I got here, just hard work, that's it."
On Saturday, Stephens will meet No. 15 Madison Keys or No. 20 CoCo Vandeweghe in the first all-American US Open women's final since 2002, when Williams and her sister Serena faced each other.
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