At first, Liudmila Samsonova gave Iga Swiatek a challenge.

She held serve the opening four times in the first set. She blended power and finesse — even reaching 117 mph on some of the most powerful ones — with her serve to keep the world No. 1 off-balance.

But then Swiatek took over. She lost just one more game the rest of the match.

She has reached the pinnacle of the U.S. Open before, winning the singles title in 2022, and with her 6-4, 6-1 win in the Round of 16 on Monday, Swiatek took one step closer to replicating that chase for a title.

The first step toward separating from Samsonova involved forcing a break, and she finally did late in the first set, winning four of the five points to go up 5-4.

Then, she won all four points and held serve to take the set and the first five of the second set.

In the final game, when Samsonova needed to hold serve to stave off a looming match point, she held serve, but Swiatek clinched the win in the next game.

Her third ace set up a second chance at match point. And when Samsonova’s rally to a soft hit landed out, that was enough for Swiatek.

Last year, this was the juncture of the Open when Switaek’s bid for an encore ended in an upset.

This was when she fell to No. 20 Jelena Ostapenko, when her one tournament that ended on top of the draw resembled more of a hard-court anomaly when aligned with her other appearances in Queens — a Round of 64 ending, a Round of 32 defeat, and then two the reached the brink of the final eight.

Her return to the ultimate match of the women’s draw will still need to get past No. 6 Jessica Pegula — searching for her first trip to a Grand Slam semifinal after building a career on the near-misses — on Wednesday.

No. 2 seed Aryna Sabalenka, who made the final at the Open last year and the semifinal in the two editions of the tournament prior to that, still looms on the other end of the draw, too.

But for one night, and for one week, Swiatek successfully navigated everything.