Emma Navarro produced an amazing turnaround for the biggest win of her career as she won the final six games in a row to beat Paula Badosa 6-2, 7-5 to reach her first Grand Slam semi-final, where she plays the winner of Aryna Sabalenka or Zheng Qinwen.
Reaching the semi-final is rightly a huge achievement for Navarro, who’s Grand Slam results have improved in every event of 2024. “It means so much to me,” she explained on court afterwards. “My coach and I have been together since I was 14 or 15 so it’s been eight years now. We’ve done a lot of great work together. Thank you for everything you do, all your dedication and the time you put into this journey and making me into the player that I am. Just really happy with my performance today. Crazy to be moving on to the semi-finals. US Open baby!”
The pair had met once before with the Spaniard earning a three-set victory on the red clay in Rome in May. But Navarro, who beat defending champion Coco Gauff in the previous round, picked up where she left off by racing to a 3-0 lead. Badosa was broken for the second time when she missed a backhand drop shot at breakpoint down to hand the first set in 28 minutes.
Former world number two Badosa was aiming to become the first female Spanish semi-finalist at the US Open for almost 30 years, and had a 14-2 win-loss record on the hard-court swing including winning the title in Washington DC. She entered the quarters with strong stats on her return games and serve speeds of 121mph but was helpless through the opening half an hour.
Yet Navarro was in immediate trouble and lost her serve when hitting a backhand wide to hand her opponent an early break at the start of the second set. She was in more danger a few games later on serve at 1-3 down when Badosa finally began taking control of baseline rallies and targeted Navarro’s weaker forehand. After a fourteen-shot rally, a powerful backhand crosscourt gave her the double break and she led 4-1.
However, having played so aggressively through the set the Spaniard suddenly became passive and dropped serve exactly at the wrong moment when she was serving out at 5-2. She fell to 15-40 and Navarro retrieved one of the breaks with a clean winner off the return. Two games later Badosa fell into the same trap and was 15-40 down again, and when a backhand sailed long the scores were level at 5-5.
“After I got it back to 5-2, I had a bit of an inkling that it might be two sets,” said Navarro. “I just wanted to stay really tough and stick in there and even if I did lose the second set, I wanted to set the tone for the third set.”
After holding serve, Navarro sensed her chance to close out the match in the next game and a nervous Badosa faced breakpoints for the third service game in a row. During the final rally, Navarro mis-hit a baseline stroke but it landed plum in the right-hand corner, and when the America opted for a drop shot, Badosa was completely out of position to chase it down.
When asked about facing either of her next opponents, she replied: “I’ve played both of them a couple of times. They are great players; I think we will have a great battle. But I’ll be up for the challenge of either of them. Both big servers, big hitters and I think they will come aggressively at me whichever one it is but yeah I’ll be ready.”
She also thanked her dad for pushing her into tennis rather than conventional school. “I also want to thank my dad because he saw a vision from when I was really young. He knew maybe I was a little bit ADHD or something to be sat in a classroom or in a 9-5 and I think he saw something in me from a young age. Thanks, Dad, for sending me on this journey.”
