New York—Moderate and well-spoken, Emma Navarro he went to the well as he took out three sets of the defending champions Coco Gauff at Arthur Ashe Stadium on Sunday.
Playing a flawless game, the 23-year-old allowed his game to slip after the second set, as errors crept in and Gauff took over.
Suddenly, instead of stealing an outright victory—which seemed more likely when he was serving 6-3, 4-3 deuce—he had to fight it out in a hair-raising decision set.
The result was a confidence-boosting victory, a first for Ashe, which showed that Navarro not only has elite tennis strokes, he also has superior mental strength.
“I think it’s easy to be tough when you’re playing good tennis and everything is working well, and you’re hitting all your shots well and things are going well, but I think being tough is when you can keep following your shot. and play aggressive tennis when doubts creep in and when you’re not 100 percent sure about certain shots or how you’re playing,” he told reporters after the 6-3, 4-6, 6-3 win.
Navarro, who faces Paula Badosa in Tuesday’s semifinals at the Open, looks like she was born with a strong streak. He never looked worried on the court, even when he dropped the second set it was clear that he still had both hands on the wheel.
“I think it’s the ability to not be disappointed by things that don’t go your way or by making mistakes,” she said. “You know, he’s just like not being bothered by what’s going on out there, and the ability to keep coming point by point, game by game and never hit that limit, you know, I miss X. the value of this exact picture and I can’t take it anymore.
“Don’t let that happen.”
It also helps that Navarro has evolved as a player. He has a knack for holding his own on the tennis court, and that hasn’t always been true of the University of Virginia standout.
“I think I’m completely different, definitely as a player,” he said. “I think I play aggressively. As every part of my gme has improved. “
The 12th-ranked American lost to Badosa earlier this year at the Wall in Rome, but believes he has a revenge game against the 26th-ranked Spaniard. Not only that, he thinks he can do what Coco did last year and win it all this weekend in New York.
“It’s crazy to talk about winning a Grand Slam or winning a tournament like the US Open,” he said. “A few months ago I wouldn’t have said that either. So, yeah, it’s pretty crazy to sit here now and have the quarterfinals ahead of me and feel like I’m playing well enough to keep it going.”
