New York – Poised and well spoken, Emma Navarro went to the well during her three-set elimination of the defending champion Coco Gauff at Arthur Ashe Stadium on Sunday.
Playing a perfect match, the 23-year-old let her game slip late in the second set as the errors came and Gauff picked up her game.
Suddenly, instead of running away with a straight win – which looked very possible when she served 6-3, 4-3, she had to fight it out in a deciding set.
The result was a confidence-inspiring victory, her first at Ashe, that showed Navarro not only has an elite tennis stroke, she also has an elite mental capacity.
“I think it’s easy to be tough when you’re playing great tennis and everything’s going well, and you hit all your shots well and things are just going well, but I think toughness is when you can keep going after your shots. and play aggressive tennis when you have some doubts and you’re not 100 percent sure just about some shots or how you’re playing,” she told reporters after the 6-3, 4-6, 6-3 win.
Navarro, who faces Paula Badosa for a semifinal spot Tuesday at the Open, appears to have been born with a steely demeanor. She never looks worried on court, even when she dropped the second set it was clear she still had both hands on the wheel.
“I think it’s the ability to not get discouraged by things not going your way or making mistakes,” she said. “You know, you’re not just upset about the things that are going on out there, and just the ability to go point by point, game by game and never cross that line, you know, I’ve missed X amount of this specific shot and i just can’t take it anymore.
“Just don’t let that happen.”
It also helps that Navarro has evolved as a player. She possesses the ability to take matters into her own hands on a tennis court, and that wasn’t always true of the former University of Virginia standout.
“I think I’m completely different, definitely as a player,” she said. “I think I play more aggressively. Like every part of my brain has improved.”
The 12th-ranked American lost to Badosa earlier this year on clay in Rome, but she believes she has the game to get her revenge on the 26th-ranked Spaniard. Not only that, but she thinks she can do what Coco did last year and win it all this weekend in New York.
“It’s so crazy to talk about just winning a Grand Slam or winning a tournament like the US Open,” she said. “A few months ago, I wouldn’t have said that either. So yeah, it’s pretty crazy to be sitting here right now and have the quarter-finals in front of me and feel like I’m playing well enough to keep going like this.”
