Coco Gauff’s title defense at the US Open ended with a loss against Emma Navarro in New York

Coco Gauff, the defending champion, faced a surprising defeat at the hands of 13th seed Emma Navarro, bringing an end to her run at the US Open. Despite struggling with her serve and forehand, the 2023 champion displayed remarkable resilience, forcing a third-set decider before ultimately being beaten by her fellow American in New York with scores of 3-6, 6-4, 3-6.

Emma Navarro, who secured her spot in the quarter-finals for the second time in her career and the first at the US Open, exhibited dominance in the first set and maintained a strong position in the second as well. Although nerves affected Navarro as Coco Gauff rallied to take the contest to a third set, Navarro’s breakthroughs in the third set led to a stunning victory.

Navarro’s upcoming opponent in the quarter-finals will be Paula Badosa, the 26th seed, who advanced to her second career Grand Slam quarter-final at the US Open after defeating Yafan Wang with a score of 6-1, 6-2. Badosa’s remarkable performance included saving all eight break points and converting four out of five break points.

In another exciting match, Grigor Dimitrov dashed a comeback attempt by sixth seed Andrey Rublev to secure his spot in the US Open quarter-finals for the first time since 2019 with scores of 6-3, 7-6(3), 1-6, 3-6, 6-3. The evenly-matched clash took a turning point in the decisive fifth set, leading to Dimitrov’s victory.

Taylor Fritz also demonstrated a remarkable comeback, overcoming a slow start to dominate eighth seed Casper Ruud with scores of 3-6, 6-4, 6-3, 6-2. Fritz’s consistent performance allowed him to advance to the quarter-finals for the second consecutive year.

Moreover, German fourth seed Alexander Zverev’s compelling performance, where he came from behind to beat American Brandon Nakashima with scores of 3-6, 6-1, 6-2, 6-2, sets up an intriguing quarter-final meeting with Taylor Fritz at the US Open.

These thrilling encounters have set the stage for an electrifying remainder of the tournament as the competition intensifies, and players strive to secure their place in the coveted US Open finals.