US Open: Navarro knocks out defending champion Gauff, Olympic gold medalist Zheng in QFs

New York [US], September 2 (ANI): Emma Navarro knocked out home favourite Coco Gauff from the ongoing US Open in the round of 16 on early Monday morning.

Emma won the match 6-3, 4-6, 6-3, which let her reach her second successive major quarterfinal and ended Gauff’s title defence and 11-match win streak in New York.

When Navarro first played Gauff at Wimbledon a few months back, she was not a known name, but yet defeated the American sensation in a straight sets, fourth round match. Now proving that the victory at Wimbledon was not a fluke, Navarro has done it again. Navarro’s victory at Wimbledon had brought her a lot of widespread attention as she played one of the best matches of her career.

Now Navarro, who started off the year as world number 31, is now on the verge of a top 10 debut in WTA Rankings.

Speaking about starting off her career, Navarro said that she has passed the expectations she had from herself after leaving college.

“When I first left college, my coach and I kind of made like a two-year contract, that I would fully commit myself to playing professional tennis for two years and then kind of just reassess after that,” said Navarro as quoted by WTA.

“I think I hit the two-year mark this June, and we did not even acknowledge it or talk about it. So, yeah, definitely have surpassed my expectations for sure,” she added.

Gauff’s downfall was largely her own fault, as she hit 19 double faults and was credited with 60 unforced errors. Both the players blasted groundstrokes and used the middle of the court a lot. The first break of the match came with Gauff serving at 2-3. Then, two back-to-back double faults gave Navarro some breathing space and she did not stop after it.

“I played really tough tennis,” Navarro said.

“It was not easy. I think both of us faced our own struggles at times. I think it was a little bit of a battle of will there for a bit. But yeah, proud of just my effort today,” he added.

Navarro’s opponent will be the Paul Badosa and they will battle it out for their first-ever Grand Slam semifinal spot.

Zheng Qinwen, the Paris Olympics 2024 women’s singles champion and world number seven, also made it to the final eight after defeating Donna Vekic 7-6(2), 4-6, 6-2 in the round of 16.

She will be facing Aryna Sabalenka in the QFs in the rematch of this year’s Australian Open final.

This was Zheng’s second successive US Open quarterfinal and second Grand

In a repeat of the Paris 2024 Olympic gold-medal match, Zheng held off an outstanding effort from the 24th-ranked Croatian to make her second consecutive US Open quarterfinal and second Grand Slam quarterfinal of the season.