American Emma Navarro makes first Grand Slam semifinal at U.S. Open

Posted by Admin September 4, 2024 Sports

Brian Mahoney
| Associated Press

New York – Emma Navarro’s first Grand Slam semifinal of her career will come at the U.S. Open against Aryna Sabalenka, someone trying to win her second major trophy of the year and third overall.

Navarro, an American who is seeded 13th, used a stunning turnaround to grab the last six games of her quarterfinal against Paula Badosa for a 6-2, 7-5 victory at Flushing Meadows on Tuesday, following up her upset of defending champion Coco Gauff.

“Sometimes you’re out in the court, and you can kind of picture yourself playing a third set. When I was out there, I didn’t picture myself playing a third set,” despite being down 5-1 in the second, Navarro said. “I felt like … I could come back and do it in two.”

Sure did.

There was no such drama in No. 2 Sabalenka’s 6-1, 6-2 win against No. 7 Zheng Qinwen, the gold medalist at the Paris Olympics last month. This was a rematch of the Australian Open final in January, when Sabalenka defeated Zheng for a second consecutive title at Melbourne Park.

U.S. OPEN SCOREBOARD

With Roger Federer in the stands, attending the U.S. Open for the first time since his retirement, Sabalenka displayed a typically powerful performance to get into the semifinals in New York for the fourth year in a row. In 2023, she was the runner-up to Gauff.

Asked how she’s going to get some of the thousands of fans to support her against the American Navarro, Sabalenka, a 26-year-old from Belarus, joked: “Drinks on me!”

She is trying to become the first woman since Angelique Kerber in 2016 to win the hard-court major titles at the Australian Open and U.S. Open.

The opponents in the other women’s semifinal will be decided on Wednesday, when No. 1 Iga Swiatek plays No. 6 Jessica Pegula, and No. 22 Beatriz Haddad Maia takes on unseeded Karolina Muchova.

Navarro was three points from having to go to a third set against Badosa but won the next four points to stay alive, starting a stretch in which she captured 24 of the match’s last 28 points.

“Things weren’t looking great there in the second set, but just tried to be really tough, stick in there, make her hit one more ball,” Navarro said. “I felt like if I could scrap out a few longer points, maybe put some pressure on her, I felt like I could come back and maybe close it out in two sets. Happy with how I was able to do that.”

Navarro had never even won a match in the main draw of her home major before this year.

Badosa described herself as a “disaster” while dealing with the pressure of trying to reach her first Grand Slam semifinal.

“I never had the momentum in this match. I played four or five games OK. It was 5-1, but I never felt myself on the court,” Badosa said. “I lost, I don’t know, 20 points almost in a row. It’s very weird for me because I’m quite a consistent player, so I wasn’t expecting that either.”

Navarro also beat Gauff in the fourth round at Wimbledon before losing to eventual runner-up Jasmine Paolini in the next round, a 6-2, 6-1 rout in less than an hour.

But the 2021 NCAA singles champion for Virginia was ready for this matchup between New York natives, jumping on Badosa to win the first three games, then seizing the opening Badosa gave her late.

Navarro became the sixth player in the last 40 years to reach the U.S. Open semis without a previous main-draw victory in the tournament, a list that includes recent champions Bianca Andreescu in 2019 and Emma Raducanu in 2021.

Men’s quarterfinals

Frances Tiafoe and Taylor Fritz set up an all-American semifinal at the U.S. Open with victories Tuesday, guaranteeing the host country a men’s finalist in its Grand Slam tournament for the first time since 2006.

The 20th-seeded Tiafoe made it to the final four at Flushing Meadows for the second time in three years when his quarterfinal opponent, Grigor Dimitrov, stopped playing because of an injury in the fourth set. Tiafoe was leading 6-3, 7-6 (5), 6-3, 4-1 when Dimitrov retired from the match.

Hours earlier, Fritz watched one last errant forehand from his higher-ranked, more-accomplished opponent land wide, dropped his neon-colored racket, clenched both fists and screamed, “Come on!”

Fritz gathered himself and his equipment, walked to the net for a hug with No. 4 Alexander Zverev, who twice was a Grand Slam runner-up, then stepped to the center of Arthur Ashe Stadium, spread his arms wide and yelled again, “Come on!”

After years of climbing the rankings, of becoming the top American man in tennis, of coming close to making a breakthrough at one of his sport’s four most important events, Fritz finally came through at home, beating Zverev 7-6 (2), 3-6, 6-4, 7-6 (3) to reach a major semifinal for the first time.

The 12th-seeded Fritz, a 26-year-old from California, entered the day with an 0-4 record in Slam quarterfinals.

Dimitrov, who was seeded No. 9, had played a five-setter in the fourth round and appeared to be fading late in the third set against Tiafoe, grabbing at his left hamstring and walking gingerly between points. After that set, Dimitrov was visited by a trainer and then headed to the locker room for treatment.

He returned to the court for the start of the fourth set but wasn’t able to move properly and eventually quit.

The Fritz-Tiafoe semifinal – “That could be crazy,” Fritz said – is the first between a pair of American men at any major since 2005, when Andre Agassi defeated Robby Ginepri in New York. No American man has won a Grand Slam singles trophy since Andy Roddick triumphed at the U.S. Open in 2003; Roddick was the last man from the United States in the U.S. Open final, losing to Roger Federer in 2006.

The other men’s quarterfinals will be played Wednesday: No. 1 Jannik Sinner vs. No. 5 Daniil Medvedev, and No. 10 Alex de Minaur vs. No. 25 Jack Draper.