Coco’s Gone.
In an All-American showdown at the U.S. Open, defending champion Coco Gauff got eliminated by New York-born Emma Navarro.
Under-the-radar Emma — as she calls herself — is now in the spotlight. And in the U.S. Open quarterfinals, thanks to a 3-6, 6-4, 6-3 victory.
“It’s pretty insane. I lost in the first round the last two years,” Navarro said in an on-court TV interview. “It’s the city I was born in, and it feels so special to be playing here.”
Last year Gauff claimed her first major here in Flushing. A season ago, Navarro was ranked 149th in the world, playing in a $25,000 tournament in Naples.
Now she has unseated Gauff — her Olympic roommate, both wearing their Olympic necklaces — and reached the U.S. Open quarterfinal. And she did it thanks to Gauff’s sloppiness.
Gauff missed balls, failed to put them in play, and couldn’t buy a first serve. Her unsightly 19th double-fault — 11th in the third set alone — handed Navarro match point. And Navarro didn’t waste it.
“Coco is an amazing player; I have a ton of respect for her. I know she’s gonna come back and win this one year,” said Navarro, adding “Go New York.”
After Navarro was just 1-4 in the first four Slams of her budding career, she’s now 10-3 so far this year.
Gauff had the most double-faults on the entire WTA tour this year, and she committed three on her very first service game. She managed to overcome them, but it just established the tone of a set she eventually dropped 6-3.
An eighth Gauff double-fault helped Navarro break to go up 4-3 in the second set. But with Navarro up a break and 30-love, she played her only sloppy game of the match and let Gauff get her first break of the afternoon to knot it.
It marked an upset for Navarro, though not a shock. Gauff hadn’t been rolling the way she was when she claimed the title here last year. She had to come from a set down in the third round to beat Elina Svitolina 3-6, 6-3, 6-3.
She couldn’t pull it off again Sunday.
While Gauff had cruised to a hard court win over Navarro in Auckland, New Zealand in January, Wimbledon was a different story. Navarro flipped the script with a 6-4, 6-3 victory that she backed up on Sunday.
Gauff was visibly emotional during the match, looking up at her box for guidance and saying “Tell me something!”
“That match at Wimbledon, I mentally just literally collapsed on the court,” Gauff said beforehand. “I was very frustrated, and she played well.”
Navarro frustrated Gauff again Sunday. It wasn’t until Gauff broke to even the second set at 4-all that she started to come alive.
She pumped up the crowd, held to go ahead 5-4 and put her hand to her ear to rile up the fans at Arthur Ashe Stadium, feeding on their energy.
Gauff won 19 of 24 points to take the second set and go up 1-0 and 15-0 in the second before Navarro got a much-needed hold.
Then Navarro got handed a break thanks to three Gauff double-faults, and held to jump ahead 3-1.
After yet another double saw Gauff behind 30-15 on her serve, she fought back to hold. Serving down 4-2, she committed four doubles to hand Navarro all four of her points before finally holding.
Gauff needed a break, but Navarro held thanks to a 15-shot rally and perfectly placed forehand.
Serving to stay in the game, Gauff fittingly committed three more doubles to get broken, figuratively and literally.
Navarro is the daughter of billionaire banker Ben Navarro (who bid for the Carolina Panthers) and granddaughter of Frank Navarro (who was football coach first at Columbia and then Princeton).
But she’s making a name for herself.
This was her first time playing on Ashe, so big that when she simply practiced there as a junior it was so huge it made her “dizzy.” But this time, the stage wasn’t too big for her.
