No.19 seed Emma Navarro put on a stellar Centre Court display at Wimbledon on Sunday, dismissing her No.2-seeded compatriot Coco Gauff 6-4, 6-3 to reach the first Grand Slam quarterfinal of her career.
In the all-American clash, 23-year-old Navarro took just 1 hour and 14 minutes to prevail, denying reigning US Open champion Gauff her first trip to the Wimbledon quarterfinals.
Wimbledon 2024: Scores | Draws | Order of play
"Feeling really good," Navarro said in her post-match press. "Played some good tennis today, for sure. Faced a really tough opponent, a Grand Slam champ. ... I'm excited to keep playing."
With the win, Navarro avenged a 6-3, 6-1 loss to her 20-year-old Olympic teammate in this January's Auckland semifinals. Gauff went on to win that Auckland title for the second straight year.
Here are some more facts and figures from the upset:
33: Navarro, the 2021 NCAA singles champion out of the University of Virginia, has won 33 tour-level matches in 2024, more than twice as many as she won last year (16). She is one of only six players to win more than 30 matches on tour so far this year.
"Something my coach talks about is looking at matches as if they're a dual match like in college," Navarro said. "In college, the format is you play a single match in a week. ... You can't work your way into a tournament, build confidence or whatever. You just are playing one specific opponent on one specific day.Â
"I think that mindset has definitely helped me just not to look at a day like today as any different than any other match. I think, yeah, just being able to look at individual matches for what they are and not make them anything greater than that."
Making a first major quarterfinal continues a remarkable rise for the American, who was ranked outside the Top 100 as recently as last April. Navarro won her first Hologic WTA Tour singles title at Hobart this January and is currently at her career-high ranking of No.17.
4 - Since 2000, Emma Navarro is the is the fourth American women’s player to defeat a top-2 ranked player in the WTA at Wimbledon after the Williams sisters and Alison Riske who was the last to do so in 2019. Upset. #Wimbledon | @Wimbledon @WTA @WTA_insider pic.twitter.com/K5nexQA2Ly
— OptaAce (@OptaAce) July 7, 2024
2: Navarro now has two wins over Top 2 players in her career, having previously beaten then-No.2 Aryna Sabalenka earlier this year in Indian Wells. Despite today's result, Gauff will remain World No.2 after Wimbledon.
3-0: Navarro will try to keep her career-best Grand Slam run going when she takes on another Top 10 opponent in the quarterfinals: No.7 seed Jasmine Paolini. Navarro is a perfect 3-0 over Paolini, all of those matches coming in the last nine months.
Paolini, this year's Roland Garros runner-up, made her first Wimbledon quarterfinal when No.12 seed Madison Keys retired from their tight three-set battle due to a thigh injury.
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9: Navarro used her all-court game to triumph on Sunday, and was the slightly more successful player at net. Gauff was 8-for-12 at the net, but Navarro went a perfect 9-for-9 in the forecourt.
In the first set, Navarro won some key points with deft slicing, including on one of the two break points saved in a hold for 4-3. Navarro kept the momentum and converted her second set point with a powerful forehand winner down the line.
A quiet fist pump is Emma Navarro's version of falling to the ground 😉
— wta (@WTA) July 7, 2024
What a win for the No. 19 seed!#Wimbledonpic.twitter.com/fOLGNWMx29
16:Â Navarro maintained her composure while finishing off her biggest major result, and she did not face a single break point in the second set. Navarro needed three match points to seal victory, but forehand errors by Gauff on the last two points ended the encounter.
Navarro and Gauff each had six backhand unforced errors in the affair, but Gauff fired 16 unforced errors from the forehand side in the match, outpacing Navarro's 10 miscues from that wing.
"I really wanted to attack her forehand," Navarro said. "I think she wanted to do the same to me. We found ourselves in a lot of forehand cross-court rallies. It was kind of a cat-and-mouse, who's going to change the pattern first.Â
"I love matches like that where it feels like it's not just a hitting or striking competition, there's strategy involved. It feels like a chess match or something. That was really enjoyable for me."