Coco Gauff has joined the ranks of Novak Djokovic and Carlos Alcaraz on the sidelines of the US Open as she was ousted by fellow American Emma Navarro in a match riddled with errors.
As China’s Zheng Qinwen made history with the latest finish ever for a women’s match at 2:15 a.m., Gauff’s exit signaled another setback for American tennis, though Frances Tiafoe and Taylor Fritz offered a glimmer of hope by advancing to the men’s quarter-finals.
Their progress fuels the aspiration of seeing the first American male Grand Slam champion since Andy Roddick’s 2003 victory in New York.
Ranked third in the world, Gauff succumbed to a 6-3, 4-6, 6-3 defeat in the fourth round, undone by 19 double faults and a staggering 60 unforced errors.
This loss at the hands of the 23-year-old Navarro marks a dramatic fall for Gauff, who was aiming to defend her title, a feat not accomplished by any woman at the US Open since Serena Williams in 2014.
Navarro, who also bested Gauff at Wimbledon earlier this year, controlled the match from the beginning, breaking serve for a 4-2 lead in the first set and eventually sealing it in the ninth game after a grueling 27-shot rally.
Gauff mounted a comeback in the second set but faltered in the decider, where her serve betrayed her once more, allowing Navarro to clinch a crucial break.
“I lost in the first round the last two years and now to be making the quarter-finals is pretty insane,” Navarro remarked, reflecting on her unexpected run. She is now set to face Spain’s Paula Badosa in the quarter-finals, aiming for a spot in the last four.
Gauff, clearly frustrated, reflected on her performance, “I gave it my all. Obviously, there were things execution-wise, where I was like, I wish I could serve better. I think if I did that, it would have been a different story.”
The season’s final Grand Slam has seen some major upsets, with Djokovic, the defending men’s champion, crashing out in the third round, marking his earliest exit in nearly two decades.
Alcaraz, 2023 winner and the reigning French Open and Wimbledon champion, was also stunned in the second round.
Meanwhile, Zheng Qinwen reached the quarter-finals for the second time, defeating Donna Vekic in a match that broke the record for the latest finish for a women’s match at the US Open. Zheng secured a hard-fought 7-6 (7/2), 4-6, 6-2 victory over the Croatian, whom she also beat in the Paris Olympics semi-finals a few weeks ago.
The 21-year-old Zheng is only the second Chinese woman to reach two quarter-finals in New York, following in the footsteps of Li Na in 2009 and 2013.
Zheng now faces a challenging quarter-final match against world number two Aryna Sabalenka, who advanced with a 6-2, 6-4 win over Elise Mertens, marking her fourth consecutive quarter-final appearance at the US Open.
In the men’s draw, Tiafoe joined the elite company of Andre Agassi, Roddick, and Pete Sampras as the only American men to reach at least three US Open quarter-finals since 2000.
Tiafoe secured his place with a 6-4, 7-6 (7/3), 2-6, 6-3 victory over Alexei Popyrin, who had shocked Djokovic in the previous round. Saving three set points in the second set, Tiafoe will now face Bulgarian veteran Grigor Dimitrov for a spot in the semi-finals.
Dimitrov, seeded ninth, edged out Russian sixth seed Andrey Rublev in a five-set thriller, 6-3, 7-6 (7/3), 1-6, 3-6, 6-3, marking his first return to the quarter-finals since 2019, where he famously defeated Roger Federer in the Swiss star’s final New York appearance.
Alexander Zverev, who let slip a two-set lead in the 2020 final against Dominic Thiem, advanced to his fourth quarter-final by overcoming Brandon Nakashima 3-6, 6-1, 6-2, 6-2.
Zverev’s next challenge is a clash with 12th seed Taylor Fritz, who dispatched 2022 runner-up Casper Ruud 3-6, 6-4, 6-3, 6-2 to secure his third Grand Slam quarter-final this year.
On the women’s side, Spain’s Paula Badosa, born in New York, reached her first US Open quarter-final with a commanding 6-1, 6-2 win over China’s Wang Yafan, setting up an intriguing clash with Navarro in the next round.
