Two days after knocking out defending champion Coco Gauff, American Emma Navarro continued her winning ways by defeating Paula Badosa on Tuesday to reach her first Grand Slam semi-final at the US Open.
“It’s crazy to be qualified for the semi-finals. US Open baby!” exclaimed the world number 12 after her 6-2, 7-5 victory over the Spaniard (29th).
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“It’s so important to me… With my coach, we’ve been working together since I was 14 or 15, so it’s been eight years. We’ve done a lot of good work together,” she said of her coach Peter Ayers.
At 23, she will face the outgoing finalist Aryna Sabalenka (2nd) on Thursday for a place, who defeated the Paris Olympic champion Qinwen Zheng (7th) in two quick sets of 6-1 and 6-2.
“I’ve played against both of them several times. They are both great players, but I’ll be ready to face either one,” Navarro said.
Having only reached the second round of a major once so far (Roland Garros 2023), Navarro has experienced meteoric rise this year: third round at the Australian Open, round of 16 at Roland Garros, quarter-final at Wimbledon and at least semi-final at Flushing Meadows, for his eighth major.
Intuition
The American won her first and only WTA title to date last January in Hobart.
On Tuesday in New York, she made the best start to take a 3-0 lead in the first set, which she won on a second break. She had a drop in form in the second set and Badosa made the opening break.
The Spaniard then managed the double break to break away 4-1, then 5-1 by confirming her serve.
Just when the players seemed to be heading towards an inevitable deciding set, the match suddenly changed again: Badosa collapsed and left her opponent with six games in a row.
It was even on the verge of tears that she played the 12th game of the set, the last of the match, on her serve.
“When I came back to 5-2, I had the intuition that I could finish in two sets,” Navarro said.
“An ant”
Suffering from chronic back pain, Badosa ended her season last year after withdrawing from Flushing Meadows and did not return to competition until June.
Just before the tournament, she won the fourth WTA title of her career in Washington, then reached the semi-finals in Cincinnati. In New York, the former world number 2 reached the quarter-finals of a Grand Slam for the second time in her career, after Roland-Garros 2021.
On Tuesday, Badosa highlighted her state of nervousness that completely paralyzed her.
“In the second set, there was a moment where I felt a little good, but at no time were my legs fast. I was reacting slowly, and when I’m like that, I feel very small on the court,” she explained.
“After I had achieved the two breaks, I started to feel bad again, negative phrases invaded my head, and there was such a noise inside me that I only wanted to leave the court,” she added, specifying that she had felt like an “ant.”