MIAMI: The previous two match-ups between Serena Williams and Simona Halep were blowouts.

This one was a thriller. Serena is making another trip to the Miami Open women’s final after beating Halep 6-2, 4-6, 7-5 in a 2-hour, 7-minute classic on Thursday night. Looking for her eighth title at Key Biscayne, the top-seeded Serena meets 12th-seeded Carla Suarez Navarro of Spain on Saturday.

Halep, the No. 3 seed from Romania, beat Serena 6-0, 6-2 last year during round-robin play at the WTA Finals. Serena returned the favour later in that tournament, 6-3, 6-0. They were to meet in the semi-finals at Indian Wells last month, but a balky right knee forced Serena out of that match-up.

The knee wasn’t a problem in this one. Halep was, but as is usually the case, Serena found a way. She had 38 winners to Halep’s 10, overcoming 45 unforced errors.

Serena is 4-0 all-time against Suarez Navarro, who’s assured of reaching the top 10 in world rankings win or lose.

The win also means Serena will extend her reign atop the rankings to at least 116 weeks, which passes Chris Evert’s 113-week run for third-longest in WTA history. Only Steffi Graf (186) and Martina Navratilova (156) have been there longer in succession.

Spain’s Suarez Navarro got her finals ticket after topping Andrea Petkovic 6-3, 6-3 earlier on Thursday. Suarez Navarro is the first Spanish woman to make the final at Key Biscayne since Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario in 1993.

Serena isn’t the only American still alive at Key Biscayne. No. 22 seed John Isner became the first US man to reach the semi-finals there since Mardy Fish in 2011, downing fourth-seeded Kei Nishikori of Japan 6-4, 6-3.

Next up for Isner: world No. 1 Novak Djokovic, the four-time champion at Key Biscayne who beat Spain’s David Ferrer 7-5, 7-5 in another quarter-final.

Isner correctly picked Final Four on his NCAA Tournament bracket. He’s now in his own Final Four.

Isner was serving at 4-4, 0-30 in the first set, briefly flirting with trouble. A few minutes later, it was basically over. He won the next 11 points and 19 of the next 21, at one point leaving Nishikori with no choice but to shrug his shoulders as another winner whizzed past.

Isner has not been broken in the tournament and won 41 of 52 points on his serve on Thursday with 13 aces.

Djokovic got on a similar roll in his quarter-final. Down 3-0 early, he won 10 of the next 13 games and never looked back — spoiling Ferrer’s 33rd birthday.

Up 4-2 in the opening set but facing break point, Ferrer stabbed his racket out to snare a passing try by Djokovic, the resulting drop-shot winner drawing raves from the crowd and even a racket-clap from Djokovic himself.

It was one of the last hurrahs for Ferrer.

Djokovic got the break two points later, putting the opening set back on serve. Another break followed for a 6-5 lead, and Djokovic finished the 58-minute opening set off with a hold.

It was the 31st time he’s won a first set at Key Biscayne. He’s now 31-0 in those matches. Ferrer fought off a match point and ended up breaking Djokovic to knot the second set at 5-5, then lost eight of the match’s remaining 10 points.

Published in Dawn, April 4th, 2015

On a mobile phone? Get the Dawn Mobile App: Apple Store | Google Play