NEW YORK — American Emma Navarro reached her first Grand Slam semifinal by beating Spain’s Paula Badosa 6-2, 7-5 on the US Open on Tuesday.
Navarro, the No. 13 seed who had by no means even gained a match in the principle draw of her residence main earlier than this 12 months, superior to face No. 2 Aryna Sabalenka or seventh-seeded Qinwen Zheng in Thursday’s semis.
Navarro, who ousted defending champion Coco Gauff within the fourth spherical, ran by way of the primary set in 29 minutes, however the No. 26-seeded Badosa opened a 5-1 lead within the second.
Navarro then took six straight video games, successful 24 of the final 28 factors, as Badosa’s recreation fell aside.
“After I acquired it again to 5-2 I form of had a bit little bit of an inkling that it may be two units and I simply needed to remain actually powerful and stick in there,” Navarro stated in her on-court interview. “Even when I did lose the second set I needed to form of set the tone for the third set … simply actually proud of my efficiency right this moment and loopy to be transferring on to the semifinals.”
It has been a profession 12 months for Navarro, who reached the third spherical or higher in any respect 4 Grand Slams, together with a fourth-round displaying at Roland Garros and a quarterfinal look at Wimbledon. This after by no means having superior past the second spherical of a serious.
Navarro turned the fifth girl previously 30 years to achieve a US Open semifinal after having by no means beforehand gained a major draw match on the New York event. Every of the final two gamers to do that — Bianca Andreescu and Emma Raducanu — went on to win the title.
Navarro, who performed two years at Virginia, is the third former ladies’s faculty participant previously 40 years to make the semifinals at Flushing Meadows, following Oklahoma State’s Lori McNeil in 1987 and UCLA’s Jennifer Brady in 2020.
Her victory ended a powerful summer time season by Badosa, who entered Tuesday having gained 24 of her final 30 matches since Might’s event in Rome, highlighted by a WTA 500 title in Washington and a semifinal look in Cincinnati earlier than her run in New York.
ESPN Stats & Data and The Related Press contributed to this report.
