WATCH: Puig's hot shots lift her to New Haven semifinals

NEW HAVEN — In the biggest upset of the Connecticut Open, Monica Puig pulled off an up-and-down three-set win to oust No. 2 seed Caroline Garcia and make her first semifinal of 2018.

With several shifts in momentum over the course of the match, there was plenty of drama—and great shotmaking—at every turn.

The first hot shot came after Puig, down an early break, put a little too much on a drop shot. Garcia got to the ball easily, and tried to curl in a pass, but Puig salvaged the point by goaltending a two-handed backhand volley to create a break point.

Garcia stayed in front, though, with the help of this windshield-wiper pass, which she took extremely early despite her bad position in the rally:

Puig quickly found herself down 2-5 in the opening set, but she came back to win it 7-5, boosted by one of the 33 winners she'd hit in the match:

But Garcia dominated in the second set, thanks to both a lapsing Puig and shots like this:

"She started playing better, but I felt like I made some crucial mistakes," Puig said. "I wasn't there in the second set. That really cost me."

"Her ball isn't easy to get back. She plays very aggressive, very deep in the court."

Garcia would win the set 6-1, forcing Puig to reset mentally.

"I just had to turn the page, new chapter, and just start over, and just try and find a pretty consistent form," Puig said.

And she did just that, going on to win the match on yet another big forehand:

In the semifinals, Puig will play Carla Suarez Navarro, who advanced on Thursday after Petra Kvitova retired with a shoulder injury.