Coco Gauff falls in US Open title defense, losing in fourth round to Emma Navarro

By Jill Martin, CNN

(CNN) — Coco Gauff will not retain her US Open title as American Emma Navarro advanced past her compatriot in the fourth round, 6-3, 4-6, 6-3.

It’s Navarro’s second consecutive win against the 20-year-old Gauff, and it comes at the same stage in a grand slam tournament: At Wimbledon in July, Navarro had bested Gauff in the fourth round, 6-4, 6-3.

“I lost in the first round the last two years. Now to be making quarterfinals is pretty insane,” Navarro said in her interview on court. “This is the city I was born in and it feels so special to be playing here.

“Coco’s an amazing player, and I have a ton of respect for her and I know she’s going to come back here and win this thing again one year.”

In the quarterfinals, Navarro, 23, will face another player who was born in New York: No. 26 seed Paula Badosa of Spain, who defeated Wang Yafan 6-1, 6-2 earlier Sunday.

Navarro, the No. 13 seed and currently ranked 12th in the world, did what she could to counter Gauff’s power and to direct shots toward Gauff’s forehand – which is not the strongest shot for the world No. 3.

Tennis legend Chris Evert, doing analysis on the match for ESPN, called Navarro a “human backboard.”

Gauff, meanwhile, wasn’t getting what she needed from her serve, with five double faults in the opening set, including one at 15-40 to give Navarro a 4-2 lead.

Navarro obtained the break in the seventh game of the second set, hitting a forehand down the line on the run for a 4-3 advantage. Navarro, however, faltered and kept the door open, allowing Gauff to rattle off three wins in a row to force a final set.

But double faults continued to plague Gauff. In the third game of the third set, Gauff had three more of the crucial mistakes, including the final two points to give Navarro the break and a 2-1 lead.

For the match, Gauff had 19 double faults (including 11 in the third set) and 60 unforced errors to just 14 winners.

“Mentally and emotionally, I gave it my all,” Gauff told reporters. “But there’s things execution-wise, where obviously I wish I could serve better. I think if I would have (done) that it would have been a different story for me in the match.

“But Emma played really well. She did everything well, I thought. She was really aggressive on my second serves, and putting more pressure on my serve, and being solid from the baseline. I expected that going in. Emotionally I have no regrets, but obviously I wish I could execute things better.”

Navarro now leads Gauff in their career head-to-head matchups 2-1.

“It was tough losing the second set,” Navarro said. “I had chances. I was up 30-love, 4-3, and then had a little bit of a lull there. But I was able to regroup after the second set, and kind of just come into the third set with a fresh mindset. I wanted to play aggressive tennis, and I think I was able to do that.”

Once a college tennis standout at the University of Virginia, winning a national title her freshman year in singles in 2021, Navarro has matched her best result at a major. She won her first career WTA Tour title in January at Hobart.

One of the spectators on hand for the match at Arthur Ashe Stadium was 23-time grand slam champion Serena Williams, back at the site of her final match before retiring from the sport in 2022.

“I like the variety in Emma’s game,” Williams said in an interview with ESPN during the first set. “I never was a variety player, so whenever I see someone like her that slices the ball or has a lot of spin on her forehand, I really admire that because it was something I never really did.

“She can come in and she has great hands. She just does everything so well and she sees the court. She has a huge tennis IQ, and I love that.”

Williams also was complimentary of Gauff’s tennis IQ, serve and movement, as well as “her mental toughness and her mental fortitude.”

Williams was asked if Gauff should change anything about her serve or forehand.

“I feel like she has a good serve,” Williams said. “I think that it can obviously be better, but I feel like she’s so young. She has the rest of her career to just improve.

“I wouldn’t change anything on her forehand. I’ve seen a lot of interesting forehands. And listen, if you’re just confident in whatever you have, keep it up, and just be confident about it. That’s literally all she needs to do is just have confidence, whether she’s hitting it with her wrist or elbow. Just have confidence doing it.”

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