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 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.

In Monday’s first match in Louis Armstrong Stadium, 21st-seeded Alex de Minaur of Australia reached his first Grand Slam quarterfinal by defeating Vasek Pospisil of Canada, 7-6 (6), 6-3, 6-2.

Over in Arthur Ashe Stadium, Williams was two points from the victory at 6-all in the second-set tiebreaker. That’s when everything got complicated.

She sent a backhand return long to give Sakkari her fifth set point, then pushed a forehand out.

With that, the set finally belonged to Sakkari, who shook her right fist. She retained the momentum, nosing ahead in the third set by breaking in its opening game when Williams sailed a backhand long. Soon, it was 2-0 for Sakkari.

But Williams is rarely one to go quietly, and she did not go quietly Monday.

She smacked a cross-court forehand winner to get the break back as part of a three-game run, and, soon enough, Williams had taken six of the last seven games.

Williams, who turns 39 in less than three weeks, will face unseeded opponent Tsvetana Pironkova for a semifinal berth.

Second-seeded Dominic Thiem eased into the quarterfinals with a straight-sets win over Felix Auger-Aliassime.

Thiem’s 7-6 (4), 6-1, 6-1 victory put him in the quarterfinals at Flushing Meadows for the second time. He also did it in 2018. With top-ranked Novak Djokovic gone, the Austrian is the highest-seeded man left.

Thiem has reached three Grand Slam finals and is 0-3, including a five-set loss to Djokovic at this year’s Australian Open.

He beat a 20-year-old Canadian who had been broken only once during the tournament and broke him five times in three sets. He will face de Minaur in the quarterfinals.

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