Coco Gauff’s bid for a repeat U.S. Open title is over. Emma Navarro’s breakout year goes on, now with back-to-back Grand Slam quarterfinals.
The 13th seed Navarro ousted the third seed Gauff 6-3, 4-6, 6-3 in the fourth round on Sunday. Gauff had 19 double faults (11 in the final set), tying a career high, and leads the tour in double faults this year.
“I think it’s sometimes more of an emotional, mental thing, because if I go out on the practice court right now and make like, 30 serves in a row, I’ve done it before, so I think it’s also just kind of a mental hurdle that I have to get over when it comes with that,” she said. “But, yeah, I definitely want to look at other things. I don’t want to lose matches like this anymore.”
Navarro, who had one career Grand Slam match win before this year, earned her 13th Grand Slam match win of 2024.
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She plays 26th seed Paula Badosa in the quarterfinals on Tuesday.
“I lost in the first round (of the U.S. Open) last two years, and now to be making quarterfinals is pretty insane,” she said in an on-court interview. “This is the city I was born in. It feels so special to be playing here.”
Navarro, 23, won the 2021 NCAA singles title for Virginia and began her professional career after the 2022 NCAA season.
She began 2023 ranked No. 143 in the world, played 88 matches that year, mostly at lower levels and in qualifying, and finished it at No. 38.
She continued to climb, reaching the Australian Open third round and French Open fourth round and qualifying for the four-woman U.S. Olympic team. Then she swept Gauff in the fourth round of Wimbledon.
Now, she will move into the top 10 with a win over Badosa.
Gauff, 20, was one of two women to make the second week of all four Grand Slams this year, including the semifinals at the Australian Open and French Open.
Jessica Pegula, who plays her U.S. Open quarterfinal on Monday, will supplant Gauff as the highest-ranked American after this event. Gauff will drop out of the top five overall for the first time since she won last year’s U.S. Open.