Emma Navarro Eliminates Coco Gauff at Wimbledon to Reach Her 1st Grand Slam Quarterfinal

 USA's Emma Navarro celebrates winning against US player Coco Gauff during their women's singles fourth round tennis match on the seventh day of the 2024 Wimbledon Championships at The All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club in Wimbledon, southwest London, on July 7, 2024. (AFP)
USA's Emma Navarro celebrates winning against US player Coco Gauff during their women's singles fourth round tennis match on the seventh day of the 2024 Wimbledon Championships at The All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club in Wimbledon, southwest London, on July 7, 2024. (AFP)
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Emma Navarro Eliminates Coco Gauff at Wimbledon to Reach Her 1st Grand Slam Quarterfinal

 USA's Emma Navarro celebrates winning against US player Coco Gauff during their women's singles fourth round tennis match on the seventh day of the 2024 Wimbledon Championships at The All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club in Wimbledon, southwest London, on July 7, 2024. (AFP)
USA's Emma Navarro celebrates winning against US player Coco Gauff during their women's singles fourth round tennis match on the seventh day of the 2024 Wimbledon Championships at The All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club in Wimbledon, southwest London, on July 7, 2024. (AFP)

Coco Gauff has never made it past the fourth round at Wimbledon, and she exited at that stage again on Sunday, eliminated by Emma Navarro 6-4, 6-3 in an all-American matchup.

This was the latest in a series of departures by top women from the bracket this year at the All England Club: No. 1 Iga Swiatek lost on Saturday, No. 3 Aryna Sabalenka withdrew before playing a match and No. 6 Marketa Vondrousova was defeated in the first round.

Only two of the 10 highest-seeded women remain: 2022 champion Elena Rybakina, who is No. 4, and recent French Open runner-up Jasmine Paolini, who is No. 7.

“I don’t have a ton of words,” said the 19th-seeded Navarro, a 23-year-old who grew up in South Carolina and won an NCAA championship for Virginia.

“I played really aggressively. Coco’s obviously an amazing player. I have a ton of respect for her and what she’s done at such a young age is really amazing. I knew she wasn’t going to make it easy on me tonight,” said Navarro, who reached the quarterfinals at a Grand Slam tournament for the first time. “But I wanted to play aggressively and push back against her game and I think I was able to do that.”

She showed exactly the type of tennis she’s capable of playing in the second round, when she got past four-time major champion Naomi Osaka.

The No. 2-seeded Gauff, a 20-year-old from Florida, is the reigning US Open champion, and she also has been the runner-up at the French Open and reached the semifinals at the Australian Open.

And while her first big breakthrough came at the All England Club at age 15, when she became the youngest qualifier in tournament history and beat Venus Williams in the first round en route to getting to the fourth, Gauff never has bettered that result.

She also exited in the fourth round in her next appearance, in 2021, then lost in the third round in 2022 and the first round a year ago.

On Sunday, Gauff kept making mistakes — she finished with more than twice as many unforced errors, 25, as winners, 12 — and would look up as if to seek advice from her Centre Court guest box, where one of her two coaches, Brad Gilbert, often stood with his hands on his hips.

Her biggest issue was the shot that opponents know is Gauff's weakness: the forehand.

Navarro kept hitting to that side, and it worked.

Gauff made 16 unforced errors with forehands, and another 16 forced errors, accounting for 32 of the 61 total points won by Navarro.



With Mbappe Gone, Misfiring PSG are Under Pressure in Champions League

Luis Enrique's Paris Saint-Germain are struggling for goals in this season's Champions League following the departure of Kylian Mbappe. Christophe SIMON / AFP/File
Luis Enrique's Paris Saint-Germain are struggling for goals in this season's Champions League following the departure of Kylian Mbappe. Christophe SIMON / AFP/File
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With Mbappe Gone, Misfiring PSG are Under Pressure in Champions League

Luis Enrique's Paris Saint-Germain are struggling for goals in this season's Champions League following the departure of Kylian Mbappe. Christophe SIMON / AFP/File
Luis Enrique's Paris Saint-Germain are struggling for goals in this season's Champions League following the departure of Kylian Mbappe. Christophe SIMON / AFP/File

Kylian Mbappe was always going to leave an enormous void when he left Paris Saint-Germain, and the French side are struggling in this season's Champions League without the goals of their former star.
While Mbappe is now at Real Madrid after scoring a club-record 256 goals in seven seasons in Paris, his old club entertain Atletico Madrid on Wednesday in a crucial game in their European campaign, AFP said.
PSG are misfiring in this new-look Champions League, with just four points from three games, despite starting with kind home fixtures against Girona and PSV Eindhoven either side of a trip to Arsenal.
Luis Enrique's team beat Girona 1-0 only thanks to a late own-goal, despite 26 attempts during that game.
That was followed by a 2-0 defeat at Arsenal in a performance which suggested a rejuvenated Paris side are now a long way from being contenders to win European club football's greatest prize.
Then came a 1-1 draw against PSV, another game in which they managed 26 attempts and in which they paid a price for poor finishing.
PSG need only finish in the top 24 places in this 36-team league in order to reach the play-off round, and it seems reasonable to suggest that two wins from their remaining five fixtures may be enough to ensure that.
However, failure to beat Atletico would leave the Ligue 1 champions in an uncomfortable position with their next game away to Bayern Munich.
"It is the worst group," Luis Enrique said after the game against PSV in reference to his team's fixtures, with Red Bull Salzburg, Manchester City and VfB Stuttgart also still to come.
"We need to be prepared to improve what we can and keep going. But yes, it is difficult and of course I am worried."
The Qatar-owned club are coping just fine without Mbappe in Ligue 1, as they sit six points clear at the top of the table having scored 29 goals in 10 matches.
Mbappe netted 44 times in 48 appearances last season, even if he often struggled to produce his best form.
Nevertheless, PSG's difficulties in front of goal in the Champions League date back to last season's semi-finals when Mbappe was still there.
They were favorites to beat Borussia Dortmund, but lost 2-0 on aggregate. PSG had a grand total of 45 attempts on goal across the two legs and failed to score.
Kolo Muani flops
This season they have two goals from 62 attempts in Europe, and will have to be more clinical against Diego Simeone's Atletico, the best defense in Spain.
Bradley Barcola, the 22-year-old France international left-winger, is now PSG's main attacking threat with eight goals this season, while Ousmane Dembele has contributed five from the right.
"We must not have one player on whom all the pressure lies," Luis Enrique said of Barcola last week, although the biggest issue is the lack of a reliable center-forward.
Goncalo Ramos was in line to be the first choice in that position, but he picked up an ankle injury minutes into the campaign and is yet to return.
Randal Kolo Muani was signed from Eintracht Frankfurt for 90 million euros ($97m) at the start of last season but has never settled at PSG, despite producing good form for France.
Things have become so bad for Kolo Muani that he has been an unused substitute in the last two games, and a departure in January looks increasingly likely.
"I count on all my players," insisted Luis Enrique, who has more often deployed either Marco Asensio or Lee Kang-in as a false nine.
In any case, the former Barcelona coach has played down concerns about his team.
"We are scoring more goals, picking up more points, I don't see any problems. There has maybe been one match in the Champions League in which we were not up to standard but we were much better than our opponents in the other two games."
Despite that, the coach and his team will ultimately be judged above all on their results in the Champions League, and the pressure is growing.