WHAT HAPPENED: Riding a wave of confidence from her meteoric rise to No. 12 and a convincing upset of Coco Gauff earlier this summer at Wimbledon, a steely Emma Navarro advanced to her first US Open quarterfinal on Sunday afternoon. For the second time in a row at a major, she beat her countrywoman, dethroning the third seed and defending champion, 6-3, 4-6, 6-3.
Navarro, 23, will play the resurgent Spaniard Paula Badosa, the No. 26 seed, in the quarterfinal.
Gauff stormed back to claim the second set, winning 14 of the final 18 points but Navarro rebounded strongly in the deciding set. Overall the challenger played controlled and aggressive tennis to overtake Gauff, the defending champion, who had a very tough day serving, committing 19 double faults.
“I lost in the first round the last two years, so now to be in the quarterfinals, it’s pretty insane,” Navarro said to Mary Joe Fernandez of ESPN on court after her win.
“This is the city I was born in, and it feels so special to play here.”
Both players began the match looking a bit tight, but it was Navarro—playing her very first time in cavernous Arthur Ashe Stadium—who settled in first. Gauff got into repeated holes on her serve and committed a slew of errors. Gauff double-faulted twice in a row to hand Navarro a 4-2 advantage.
At 2-5, Gauff blasted a 119 mph serve out wide to save a set point, which she punctuated with a loud scream, trying to gather some steam. While Gauff held, Navarro immediately quelled any change of momentum by hitting a deep, heavy forehand to hold at love and take the opening set, 6-3.
In the second set, things stayed pretty even until 3-3. With Gauff serving, though, Navarro crunched an inside-out backhand winner and then ran down a drop shot, rolling a forehand into the open court to take a 4-3 advantage.
In the next game—despite still not playing her best—Gauff fought hard and earned three break points, winning a long, blistering groundstroke rally and snatching her first break of serve on a nervous double fault from Navarro. The third seed held to take a 5-4 lead and begged the crowd to get loud.
That they did, when a forehand flew deep off Navarro’s racquet, notching the match at one-set-each.
“It was tough losing the second set,” Navarro said. “I was up 30-love at 4-3 and had a bit of a lull there. I had to regroup after the second.”
In the deciding set, Navarro did in fact dig in and hit reset, again striking deep, penetrating groundstrokes. Gauff double-faulted for the 12th time to give Navarro an early advantage, 2-1. The 23-year-old kept up the pressure, calmly striking the ball and capitalizing on Gauff’s continued errors for a 4-2 lead.
Navarro coolly held on to win and move into her first US Open quarterfinal.
Navarro, who has described herself as naturally relaxed, had almost half as many unforced errors on the afternoon as Gauff. The former champion finished with a truly lamentable stat: she committed four times more errors than she hit winners (60 to just 14).
WHAT IT MEANS: Navarro, 23, who was born in New York City and won the NCAA championship at the University of Virginia, had never won a match in Flushing until this year. But the 13th seed is on a tear.
The two players—who got to know each other this summer as teammates and roommates at the Paris Olympics, where Gauff was the American flag bearer—had split their matches this year. Gauff easily won the first encounter in January on hardcourt in Auckland, but a vastly improved and more confident Navarro upset her fellow American in determined fashion and straight sets in the Round of 16 at Wimbledon.
Navarro has three wins over Top 10 opponents in 2024—Aryna Sabalenka at Indian Wells and Gauff at Wimbledon and now the US Open.
The 5-foot-7 Navarro is relatively small in stature, but she is very athletic and makes the most of her physical gifts. The South Carolinian is a great ball striker with good variety and anticipation, who can both counterpunch and dictate play. She steps into the ball off both wings, hits deep, and even lifts off the court when launching a big forehand.
Gauff reached the semifinals at the year’s first two majors, the Australian and French Open, before falling to Navarro in the Round of 16 at Wimbledon.
MATCH POINT: Navarro has reached a career-high ranking of No. 12; this time last year she was ranked No. 57.
Gauff had a very poor day serving: she committed 19 double faults, more than winners hit (14).
