Navarro sees off Badosa: who will she face next at the US Open?
The 23-year-old American retaliated after going down 5-1 in the second set, winning 24 of the last 28 points against the Spaniard.
Emma Navarro became the first player to book a place in the semi-finals of the women’s singles at the US Open after beating Paula Badosa 2-6 5-7 at Flushing Meadows on Tuesday.
Emma Navarro strolls into the semi-finals
The 23-year-old continues her march in the tournament after knocking out the defending champion Coco Gauff in the last round. Navarro also had the tennis gods on her side - Badosa missed a great opportunity to get back into the game but a strong finish by the American saw that chance fade away.
Navarro, in great physical and tennis form, won 24 of the last 28 points, to sentence a game that lasted just over an hour. She will face Belarusian Aryna Sabalenka or China’s Olympic gold medalists Qinwen Zheng on Thursday.
It was not Paula’s day. She was unable to repeat the triumph of just a few months ago in Rome against the same opponent. She committed 35 unforced errors (seven double faults), 20 more than her opponent, who was better in all statistics and remained impassive to react when things weren’t going her way.
Navarro is the leader of the course in victories on hard courts (30), the the most wins on tour after Iga Swiatek (43) and was able to overcome every obstacle she faced on the day. Badosa meanwhile will have to accept that the quarterfinals has been her best finish once again - this year in New York and at Roland Garros 2021. However, a very positive tour ends for her (14-3), from which she provisionally leaves as number 20 in the WTA ranking. Only the Czech Karolina Muchova could overtake her if she is champion next Saturday.
Superiority and reaction
In the first set, Badosa had few options. Navarro faced her with aplomb and a lot of power to immediately break the serve of the Begur native. Her tactic, to load the game on the American’s forehand, did not work. In fact, she won more points by changing to the backhand. And the first opportunities she had to break slipped through the cracks.
A couple of forehands into the net and a drop shot from Navarro cut the reaction short. Then, two double faults from Paula and a drop shot from her, in this case bad, handed the set to her rival. “I can’t play,” she said, in Catalan, to her team.
Things seemed to change in the second set, when Badosa broke to put a hopeful 2-0 on the scoreboard. The Catalan was on a roll, taking advantage of a strange slump by Navarro. And she got to 5-1 and served at 5-3 to tie the match. But Emma suddenly woke up and unleashed a devastating 5-0 to win the match, with another drop shot, as if it were nothing.
Navarro, who had played five tournaments in five weeks, said afterwards, “I got chills there at the end. It’s so surreal playing here in New York City, the city I was born in. It’s been a long season, but I’m ready to rock”.