Coco Gauff, of the United States, reacts after losing to Emma Navarro, of the United States, in the fourth round of the U.S. Open tennis championship, Sunday, Sept. 1, in New York. 2024.
Pamela Smith/AP
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Pamela Smith/AP
NEW YORK — Here’s everything you need to know about defending champion Coco Gauff’s 6-3, 4-6, 6-3 loss to Emma Navarro in the fourth round of the US Open on Sunday: Gauff made more double faults, 19, than she did serving the winning serve, 14.
It was the latest in a series of early exits for her in recent weeks, including a third-round exit at the Paris Olympics, then a 1-2 record at warm-up hard-court events before heading to New York.
“I feel like there are 70 other players on the list who want to have the same summer as me, even though it was the worst summer, probably the best summer I’ve had at this time of year,” said third-seeded Gauff, who went 18-1 on a hard-court tour of North America in the past 12 months, including her quest for her first Grand Slam title. “A lot of people want to be in the fourth round. A lot of people want to be in the Olympics. A lot of people want to carry the flag. That’s the point.”
The 20-year-old Florida native fought her way back into the match with a four-game series, in which she scored 14 of her 17 points and won the second set.
“I had a little bit of a slump there,” said 13th-seeded Navarro, an American who had gone 0-2 at the US Open until this year, “but I was able to get back into form.”
After each of her last two tournaments in New York, Gauff has gone to practice serving. That didn’t help much on Sunday, when she tied her personal record for double faults: She also had 19 in a loss at the 2020 French Open. Against Navarro, Gauff committed three double faults in four different games. Eleven of those double faults came in the final set alone.
Gauff attributed her problems to a combination of technical issues—”I tend to fall to my left side when I serve, and I’m aware of that, but I guess it’s hard to try not to do that,” she explained—and in her mind.
“Sometimes it’s more emotional, more mental, because if I go out to practice right now, I’m going to serve 30 times in a row. I’ve done that before,” Gauff said. “I think it’s also just a mental barrier that I have to overcome when the time comes. … But I definitely want to look at other things, because I don’t want to lose matches like this anymore.”
She finished with a total of 60 unforced errors — including 29 on her forehand.
Navarro, 23, who also eliminated Gauff in the fourth round at Wimbledon in July, was much more consistent on Sunday, although she still made 35 unforced errors.
“It was a little bit of a battle of wills for a little while. But proud of my effort today,” said Navarro, Gauff’s teammate at the Paris Olympics. “I was able to hold on through some tough moments.”
The result, which followed a third-round loss to defending men’s champion Novak Djokovic on Friday, means the long drought of no one winning consecutive titles in New York will continue. The last woman to win at least two consecutive titles was Serena Williams, with three from 2012-14; the last man to do so was Roger Federer, with five from 2004-08.
Frances Tiafoe eliminated 28th seed Alexei Popyrin, who stunned Djokovic, with a 6-4, 7-6 (3), 2-6, 6-3 victory on Sunday night. The 20th seed advanced to his third consecutive US Open quarterfinal and will play ninth seed Grigor Dimitrov, who defeated Andrey Rublev 6-3, 7-6 (3), 1-6, 3-6, 6-3 as 23-time Grand Slam champion Williams looked on and gave him a thumbs-up at the end of the match.
Also in action on Sunday is No. 12 Taylor Fritz, who defeated three-time Grand Slam finalist Casper Ruud 3-6, 6-4, 6-3, 6-2. Fritz will face 2020 US Open runner-up Alexander Zverev in the quarterfinals, who beat Brandon Nakashima 3-6, 6-1, 6-2, 6-2.
“I’m at a point now where I’m still happy to be in the quarter-finals, but I wouldn’t be happy if it ended here,” said Fritz, who has yet to reach a Grand Slam semi-final. “I’m definitely at a point where I really want more.”
The Wimbledon win over Gauff gave Navarro, the 2021 NCAA singles champion for the University of Virginia, her first appearance in the quarterfinals of a major. Her second match will be Tuesday in New York against No. 26 Paula Badosa, who beat Wang Yafan 6-1, 6-2. The other women’s match that day will be between No. 2 Aryna Sabalenka—who was Gauff’s runner-up last year and beat Elise Mertens 6-2, 6-4 on Sunday—and either No. 7 Zheng Qinwen or No. 24 Donna Vekic.
The quarterfinals will give Navarro another chance to play at Arthur Ashe Stadium in front of a big crowd. She had never hit a ball there before Sunday—and felt pretty comfortable anyway.
“I’ve been on big stages before where I felt completely overwhelmed and almost like an out-of-body experience. But today I didn’t feel that way,” Navarro said. “I felt comfortable from the moment I stepped on the court, which I was a little surprised by. I was prepared for the worst, but I just felt overwhelmed and nervous.”
Definitely not done that way.
Gauff was unable to show her full potential.
“I expected better, but it finally happened,” Gauff said, “and I knew I could turn it around.”
