Coco is gone.
Defending champion Coco Gauff was defeated by New York native Emma Navarro in the US Open final.
The once under-the-radar Emma (as she calls herself) is now stepping into the spotlight, and with a 3-6, 6-4, 6-3 victory she has advanced to the quarter-finals of the US Open.
“It's unbelievable, because I lost in the first round the last two years,” Navarro said in an on-court television interview. “This is the city where I was born and it feels really special to be playing here.”
Gauff won her first major title here in Flushing last year. A season ago, Navarro was ranked 149th in the world entering the $25,000 tournament in Naples.
Now she beat her Olympic roommate, Gauff, who also wears an Olympic necklace, to reach the quarterfinals of the U.S. Open — and it was all thanks to Gauff's carelessness.
Gauff missed balls, couldn't get into play, couldn't buy a first serve, and her ugly 19th double fault (her 11th in the third set alone) gave Navarro a match point. And Navarro didn't waste it.
“Coco is a great player. I have a lot of respect for her. I'm sure she'll come back this year and win it,” Navarro said, adding, “Go New York.”
Navarro went 1-4 in the first four Grand Slam tournaments of her career but is 10-3 this year.
Gauff committed the most double faults on the entire WTA Tour this year, three in her first service game, and although she managed to overcome them, it was the deciding factor in the set she eventually lost 6-3.
Gauff's eighth double fault gave Navarro a break to lead 4-3 in the second set, but when Navarro broke to reach 30-love, she displayed her only sloppy play of the match, allowing Gauff to get the first break of the afternoon to tie the score.
It was an upset for Navarro, but not a surprise. Gauff wasn't in the same form she was when she won here last year, dropping a set in the third round before beating Elina Svitolina 3-6, 6-3, 6-3.
She couldn't make it through again Sunday.
Gauff beat Navarro handily on a hard court in Auckland, New Zealand, in January, but things were different at Wimbledon, where Navarro came from behind to win 6-4, 6-3 and kept the momentum going on Sunday.
Gauff was visibly emotional throughout the match, looking up to the box for instructions and saying, “Say something!”
“At Wimbledon, I literally had a mental breakdown on the court,” Gauff said before the match. “I was so frustrated and she played well.”
Navarro continued to give Gauff a hard time on Sunday, but it wasn't until Gauff broke in the second set to tie the score at 4-4 that Navarro finally began to come alive.
She pumped up the crowd, leading 5-4 and cupping her hands to her ears to pump up the Arthur Ashe Stadium fans, feeding off their energy.
Gauff won 19 of 24 points to win the second set and led 1-0 and 15-0 in the second set before Navarro got a much-needed hold.
Navarro then broke thanks to three double faults from Gauff and held on to take a 3-1 lead.
Gauff fought back to hold after falling behind 30-15 on serve with another double serve, then hit four double serves and handed all four points to Navarro while still trailing 4-2 before finally holding.
Gauff needed a break, but Navarro held on thanks to a 15-shot rally and a perfect forehand.
Serving to stay in the match, Gauff hit three more doubles only to be broken, figuratively and literally.
Navarro is the daughter of billionaire banker Ben Navarro (who made a bid to buy the Carolina Panthers) and the granddaughter of Frank Navarro (who was football coach first at Columbia University and then at Princeton University).
But she is gaining fame.
It was her first time performing at Ash, and when she practiced as a junior, she found the size of the stage “dizzying,” but this time the stage wasn't too big for her.
