Emma Navarro bests Paula Badosa for first Grand Slam semifinal at 2024 US Open

NEW YORK—Emma Navarro gave U.S. fans plenty to cheer for as quarterfinal action got underway at the 2024 US Open, clinching the best major result of her young career with a 6-2, 7-5 win over Paula Badosa.

Playing her second consecutive Grand Slam quarterfinal, the No. 13 seeded-American backed up her upset of defending champion Coco Gauff with another strong performance on Arthur Ashe Stadium, winning the last six games to best the No. 26 seed and former world No. 2 in one hour and 12 minutes.

"When I got back to 5-2, I had an inkling I could get this done in two sets," Navarro said on court.

"I felt like she wasn't totally confident in her ability to close out that set, so I felt like if I could push back a little bit and make her think a little bit on her service game, maybe I could sneak my way back in there," she added in her post-match press conference.

"I think sometimes you're out in the court, and, yeah, you can kind of picture yourself playing a third set. When I was out there, I didn't picture myself playing a third set. I felt like, yeah, I don't know, I could come back and do it in two."

Navarro had already lit up Ashe Stadium over Labor Day weekend to continue what has been a breakthrough season for the 23-year-old, defeating Gauff for the second time in three months, also winning their face-off at Wimbledon. The 2021 NCAA champion has scored three Top 10 victories since March, defeating Aryna Sabalenka at the BNP Paribas Open to reach her first WTA 1000 quarterfinal and make her Top 20 debut.

Making steady improvements at the majors, she reached the third round of the Australian Open and the fourth round of Roland Garros before reaching the quarterfinal stage at SW19, repeating the feat in Flushing Meadows to book a second meeting with Badosa.

Like Navarro, Badosa was also born in New York City but grew up in Barcelona. Her previous best major result came on clay at Roland Garros in 2021, the same season she won the BNP Paribas Open and qualified for the WTA Finals. Peaking at No. 2 in the rankings at the start of 2022, Badosa was soon beset by injuries and nearly retired from tennis before her back injury abated this spring.

From there, the Spaniard went on a tear, winning the Mubadala Citi DC Open and reaching the Cincinnati Open semifinals. At the Open, which had hitherto been her least successful Slam, she dropped just one set en route to the last eight.

Navarro lost to Badosa in their last encounter at the Internazionali BNL d’Italia but got off to a quick start to open play on Ashe. With Olympic swimmer Katie Ledecky looking on, Navarro dropped just three points in the first three games and fended off two break points to ultimately seal the opening set.

Badosa turned things around early in the second set with a double-break lead of her own, roaring ahead 5-1. The No. 26 seed was soon plagued by errors and failed in both attempts to force a third set.

Buoyed by the second wind, Navarro held to love to win a fifth straight game and find herself on the brink of the final four.

"I lost, I don't know, 20 points almost in a row," said Badosa, who called her performance a "disaster." "It's very weird for me because I'm quite a consistent player, so I wasn't expecting that either."

Up match point, Navarro ended the match as she began it, stumping Badosa with a forehand drop shot to ease over the finish line in just over an hour.

In the semifinals will be an intriguing rematch regardless of opponent as she awaits either No. 2 seed Sabalenka or Olympic champion Zheng Qinwen, with whom she shared a contentious moment at net in Paris.