Four quarters add up to one whole lot of excitement on Day 9 of the 2024 US Open, as eight of the remaining title contenders take to the courts today, each hoping to remain as title contenders tomorrow. Today, Emma Navarro battles Paula Badosa, before Taylor Fritz squares off with Alexander Zverev. Under the lights of Arthur Ashe Stadium tonight, Aryna Sabalenka faces Qinwen Zheng, and Frances Tiafoe takes on Grigor Dimitrov In a tournament that has seen plenty of upsets and surprising twists, today’s lineup features a few surprising participants. But whether the names are familiar or slightly less-so, every one of these players now share a common bond—they’re all just three wins away from a US Open title.
Women’s No. 13 seed Navarro is making giant-slaying something of a habit. Her stunning fourth-round dismissal of defending US Open champ and third-seeded Coco Gauff on Sunday was only slightly less stunning because it was the second time this year she knocked Gauff out of a major, having dismissed her compatriot in the same round at Wimbledon this summer.
The 23-year-old had never before been beyond Flushing’s first round in two previous appearances, and now finds herself in the quarterfinals of a second consecutive major. Navarro, who captured her first career singles crown back in January at the Hobart tournament, owns wins this year over Aryna Sabalenka, Naomi Osaka, Madison Keys and Jasmine Paolini, and is currently ranked a career-high No. 12. On the heels of her Flushing flourish, she figures to bust into the Top 10 after this tournament ends.
Today, Navarro squares off with No. 26 seed Badosa, whose run to the quarterfinals marks her best-ever US Open advance and matches her best career showing at a major, having also reached this point at Roland Garros in 2021. The 26-year-old Spaniard captured her fourth career singles crown at this summer’s Washington, D.C., event, and backed that up with a run to the semis of Cincinnati. She’s a particularly solid player when the footing is firm; three of her four career singles crowns have come on hard courts.
The Spaniard was victorious in their only career meeting, ousting Navarro in the second round of this year’s clay-court Rome tournament. But this second meeting figures to be an intriguing one, as Navarro has thus far displayed the sort of cool confidence that always plays well when the heat gets turned up here. In each of her last two matches, she’s won the first set, lost the second, and rallied back for the win. This figures to be a similar back-and-forth battle, and in three, it’s Navarro who goes forth.
Tiafoe, the No. 20 seed, is just one win away from matching his best-ever US Open performance, a run to the semifinals in 2022. His quarterfinal appearance here makes him just the fourth American man to reach at least three quarters in Flushing since 2000—joining Andre Agassi, Pete Sampras, and Andy Roddick in that club. Of course, Tiafoe has his sights set on bigger things, and with the men’s draw turned on its head with the upsets of the past two year’s men’s champions, there may never be a better time for the American to make his mark on Flushing’s hard floors. He’s had to tough his way to this point, playing two four-setters and one five, but when pushed, he’s found a way to push back. That’s what the best do.
Tiafoe figures to get another serious shove today from Dimitrov, the veteran talent who’s competing in his 14th US Open main draw. His best career finish in Flushing was a semifinal showing in 2019, when he knocked out third-seeded Roger Federer in the quarters. The 33-year-old Bulgarian is into his second major quarterfinal of the year, reaching this same point at Roland Garros in June, and his fourth-round win over Andrey Rublev was the 450th of his career. What’s more, that win also was his 300th on hard courts, making him the only player born in the 1990s to achieve that mark. The 2008 US Open boys’ singles champ won his ninth career title at the hard-court Brisbane event in January, and knocked out Alcaraz and Zverev back-to-back in March to reach the final in Miami.
Dimitrov owns a 3-1 edge over Tiafoe in their career head-to-heads, their most recent encounter a win for the Bulgarian in Wimbledon’s third round this summer. This one could easily go either way, as both men seem to raising their respective games at just the right time. But there’s something about the way Tiafoe is playing that suggests that this just might be his time. In a very loud five, the American is through to his second US Open semifinal.
