American tennis star Emma Navarro continued her impressive performance at the US Open on Tuesday. After her surprising win against fellow American Coco Gauff in the round of 16, Navarro managed to defeat Spaniard Paula Badosa 6-2, 7-5 in straight sets and advance to the semi-finals of the Grand Slam tournament.
It is the first time in Navarro's career that she has reached the semifinals of a major tournament. Navarro had previously reached the quarter-finals of Wimbledon this year before losing to Italian Jasmine Paolini.
After Navarro won the opening set convincingly, Badosa jumped to a 5-1 lead in the second set and appeared to be on the verge of forcing the third set. However, Navarro gathered her strength and won the next six games, scoring 24 of the last 28 points of the second set.
“After I got the score back to 5-2, I kind of suspected it might be two sets,” Navarro said after her quarterfinal win. “I just wanted to stay tough and keep at it. Even if I lost the second set, I wanted to set the tone for the third set. I’m just really happy with my performance today.”
Navarro was able to capitalize on five of her eight break point chances while also winning 39 service points.
over the weekend, Navarro scored a surprising win against Gauff on Sunday. They beat the number 3 seeded team 6-3, 4-6, 6-3 in the round of 16 and will face Badosa on Tuesday. Gauff was the defending US Open champion when she won the 2023 Grand Slam tournament.
Navarro will now face winner No. 2 Aryna Sabalenka and No. 7 Qinwen Zheng, who will compete on Tuesday evening.
