NEW YORK—As Angelique Kerber walked down the tunnel in Arthur Ashe Stadium before her semifinal on Thursday night, she was stopped by ESPN’s Pam Shriver. It was time for one of the obligatory pre-match interviews that the players seem to hate and most of the fans I know could do without.

This time, though, there was some breaking news to discuss: With Serena Williams’ loss to Karolina Pliskova a few minutes earlier, Kerber had just clinched her spot as the new WTA No. 1, becoming the first German to do it since Steffi Graf and, at 28, the oldest to reach that position for the first time.

But Kerber didn’t want to hear about it.

“I’m just happy to be in the semis,” she said without cracking a smile. “And I’m looking forward to this match.”

For Kerber, as for any top player, being No. 1 is a great honor, but winning Grand Slam titles is why they play the game. Serena’s loss hadn’t just put Kerber at the top of the rankings, it had left her with a much clearer path to her second major title of 2016. This was no time to bask.

“It was not so easy to go on the court,” Kerber said later, “because I knew it actually before that if Serena lost, of course, that I will be the No. 1. So it was not so easy mentally, but I was trying to, again, not putting too much pressure on myself.”

So Kerber pulled her visor low, put her game face on, and stayed focused on the task at hand through her mostly routine, 87-minute, 6-4, 6-3 win over Caroline Wozniacki. While the German is ranked 74 places ahead of the Dane, this match was still a test of her new status. These two women had been facing off since 2008, and Kerber led their head-to-head by a slim 7-5. It was Wozniacki, the younger player by two years, who had jumped out of the gates and reached No. 1 by age 20. Kerber, meanwhile, was the late bloomer who only cracked the Top 10 for the first time at 24. Had she left Wozniacki in the dust completely?

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Angelique Kerber reached her first U.S. Open final by playing with the easy command of a No. 1

Angelique Kerber reached her first U.S. Open final by playing with the easy command of a No. 1

The answer, based on the evidence of this match, was a definitive yes. Kerber immediately went up 4-0, and it was clear right away that she was going to present an insoluble problem for Wozniacki. On the one hand, Kerber was just as consistent as the famously steady Wozniacki; on the other, Kerber hit with more depth, more authority, and more flat, purposeful pace from both sides.

The tale of the match was told in one statistic: who won the long points. In rallies that were four shots or less, Kerber led 27-26; in rallies that were five to eight shots, Kerber led 17-16. In other words, there was no difference between the two players. But in rallies that lasted nine shots or more, Kerber dominated, 23-8. She never looked rushed or troubled or out of position, and she ended a few points by standing flat-footed at the baseline and casually knocking an overhead into the corner for a winner. That shot really shouldn’t be that easy.

“It’s her second home here,” Kerber said of Wozniacki, a five-time U.S. Open semifinalist. “I was trying to play my game...I was trying to think how I was playing here the last few weeks, also the last few months, and trying to go like this on court, being aggressive and taking my chances.”

Wozniacki kept plugging and pushing forward, and she had some success controlling the action. But the higher risk led to a higher error count than normal for her: 26. A well-constructed winning point was often followed by a demoralizing miscue. Attacking is not her forte.

“Obviously Angie is playing well,” Wozniacki said. “She’s getting a lot of balls back. I thought I was dictating a lot of the game. I was trying to press and stay close to the line. In the beginning she really got me on the contra and just kind of counter-punched me away.”

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Angelique Kerber reached her first U.S. Open final by playing with the easy command of a No. 1

Angelique Kerber reached her first U.S. Open final by playing with the easy command of a No. 1

Afterward, Kerber could finally relax and reflect on her unlikely rise to No. 1 this year, which has been both meteoric and late in coming. Like many people who recount their successes, she said she had never set a goal to reach No. 1, but had simply begun the year by trying to get better and build on the solid season she had in 2015.

“I sit down with my coach,” she said of Torben Beltz, “and we said ‘OK, what do we have to improve?’ And I was trying to...being more aggressive, and not just playing from the defensive end.”

From molehills can come mountains. When the match was over and her first trip to a U.S. Open final guaranteed, Kerber held her index finger up with a smile. This time she was happy to tell Shriver, in her post-match interview, how it felt to be at the top of the game.

“No. 1 in the world,” Kerber said, as if daring to utter the words for the first time.

It didn’t take her long to decide how she felt about them.

“Sounds amazing!”