CAROLINE WOZNIACKI reached her fifth U.S. Open semifinal, and first at any Grand Slam tournament in two years, by beating an injured Anastasija Sevastova of Latvia 6-0, 6-2 Tuesday night.

    “I always believe in myself, no matter what my ranking,” said Wozniacki, who used to be No. 1. “I’ve beaten pretty much everyone in the draw before.”

    Asked about speculation that she could be contemplating retirement at some point in the not-too-distant future, Wozniacki said: “I don’t want to really talk about that now. When I feel ready to open up and say something, then I will. But for now, I’m just here to play this tournament.”

    The 48th-ranked Sevastova twisted her right ankle on the opening point of the second game and clearly was hampered by that. During the changeover after the third game, a trainer examined and taped up the ankle during a medical timeout.

    “For sure it was affecting my play,” Sevastova said, “but I’m not a person that likes to retire during a match, so I just tried my best.”

    “I’ve rolled my ankle several times, and even this year, I was out for three months with a sprained ankle. So I feel real sorry for her,” Wozniacki said in an on-court interview in Arthur Ashe Stadium. “It happened early in the match, and then I kept kind of just pushing her back and tried to make her move.”

    Wozniacki, twice the runner-up at Flushing Meadows, will meet No. 2 Angelique Kerber in today’s semifinals. It’s been quite a resurgence for Wozniacki, who lost in the first round of the Australian Open, missed the French Open with that bum ankle, and lost in the first round of Wimbledon.

    But after dropping the opening set of her first-round match against Taylor Townsend at the U.S. Open, Wozniacki has won 10 sets in a row. She eliminated 2004 champion Svetlana Kuznetsova in the second round and No. 8 Madison Keys in the fourth.

    Wozniacki’s last trip to the semifinals of a major came in 2014, when she lost the U.S. Open final to her good friend Serena Williams. Wozniacki was also a finalist in New York in 2009, losing to Kim Clijsters. Wozniacki exited in the semifinals in 2010 and 2011.

    Sevastova hadn’t ceded a set until Tuesday, beating No. 3 Garbine Muguruza, the French Open champion, and No. 13 Johanna Konta on the way to her first Grand Slam quarterfinal.

    (SD-Agencies)