Aryna Sabalenka thought she had won her US Open semifinal mid-match. She said her head was 'all over the place' after actually winning.

• Aryna Sabalenka came back from a scoreless first set to beat Madison Keys in the US Open semifinals.
• The 25-year-old Belarusian accidentally celebrated her epic comeback too early in the third set.

NEW YORK — Aryna Sabalenka let her racket clatter to the ground and threw her hands to her cheeks in jubilation. After 2 hours and 29 minutes of grueling tennis, she had punched her ticket to the 2023 US Open final.

Or so she thought.

The 25-year-old Belarusian looked up from her celebrations to see her coaches frantically waving at her from her player box. The match wasn't over; she still needed three more points to take down US player Madison Keys.

"Well, actually, I thought that we played the break up to seven," Sabalenka admitted with a laugh after the match. "I don't know; I was just all over the place and it was crazy."

"But thanks, team, that you remind me that it was actually up to 10," she added.

So she picked up her racket and circled back to the baseline to finish out the night. Five points later, the announcer called "game, set, match."

Sabalenka once again celebrated her comeback victory, falling to her knees and holding her face in her hands. This time, she got it right; she had actually won 0-6, 7-6(7-1), 7-6(10-5).

"I'm really happy that after that reaction I was able to stay focused and I was able to finish this match," Sabalenka said of her premature celebration.

The soon-to-be world No. 1 struggled in the opening set of the match. She won a paltry 36% of games on her first serve and committed 12 unforced errors en route to a 0-6 romp.

But she battled back hard in the second; she broke Keys when she served for the match at 6-0, 5-4 and then finished out the set with a dominant 7-1 victory in the tiebreak.

"You just have to keep trying, keep staying there, and keep pushing it," Sabalenka said of her mindset in the second set. "Maybe you'll be able to turn around this game."

The heavy hitters went toe-to-toe from there, exchanging breaks before heading into a tiebreaker to decide the match. Sabalenka persevered — even after her early celebration — to complete what she called "one of the best" comebacks of her career.

Sabalenka used her failures to build mental stamina

Sabalenka won the Australian Open to start the 2023 season.

But that was something of an anomaly for the superstar. Sabalenka had lost each of her five other Grand Slam semifinal matches, including a three-set heartbreaker against rival Iga Swiatek at last year's US Open.

And when it looked like the bout against Keys might go the same way as so many others, Sabalenka said she just kept "reminding myself that I lost a lot of tough matches" and that "one day all those matches should just help me somehow."

"This kind of thinking help me to stay in the game and give me some hope that I'll be able to turn around this match," Sabalenka said in her post-match press conference. "That the match is not over until the last point and that I just have to keep fighting, keep trying to find my rhythm, my game, just find myself."

"Magically I finally found the game, and I was able to turn around this match and to get this win," she added.

She is prepared for a hostile crowd in the US Open final against Coco Gauff

Sabalenka will look to end the year with her second-career Grand Slam title. Only a red-hot Coco Gauff — the 19-year-old American billed as the heir-apparent to Williams sisters — stands in her way.

Sabalenka knows she'll face a less-than-friendly crowd at Arthur Ashe Stadium Saturday afternoon as Gauff seeks the first Grand Slam championship of her career.

But if she's learned anything from Thursday's blockbuster match, it's that she can overcome anything — even a young phenom at her home slam — with her relentless fight and self-belief.

"Going into this final, I just have to focus on myself and prepare myself for another fight," Sabalenka said. "No matter what, just keep fighting and keep playing my best and do my best."

"What else can you do?" she added. "You just have to be there and you have to fight for it."