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)
TT

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.



Swiatek: Losing at French Open Lifted the Pressure for Wimbledon

Tennis - Wimbledon - All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club, London, Britain - July 10, 2025 Poland's Iga Swiatek celebrates after winning her semi final match against Switzerland's Belinda Bencic REUTERS/Stephanie Lecocq
Tennis - Wimbledon - All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club, London, Britain - July 10, 2025 Poland's Iga Swiatek celebrates after winning her semi final match against Switzerland's Belinda Bencic REUTERS/Stephanie Lecocq
TT

Swiatek: Losing at French Open Lifted the Pressure for Wimbledon

Tennis - Wimbledon - All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club, London, Britain - July 10, 2025 Poland's Iga Swiatek celebrates after winning her semi final match against Switzerland's Belinda Bencic REUTERS/Stephanie Lecocq
Tennis - Wimbledon - All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club, London, Britain - July 10, 2025 Poland's Iga Swiatek celebrates after winning her semi final match against Switzerland's Belinda Bencic REUTERS/Stephanie Lecocq

There are few benefits to losing in the semi-finals of a Grand Slam but when Iga Swiatek had her fingers prised off the French Open trophy, it had one unexpected benefit -- it lifted the pressure off her shoulders heading into Wimbledon.

Swiatek crushed Switzerland's Belinda Bencic 6-2 6-0 to reach the Wimbledon final on Thursday after years of trying and failing to make a major impact at the grasscourt Grand Slam.

She has made no secret of her preference for clay courts and her four French Open titles were clear evidence that Paris's red dirt was more to her liking than Wimbledon's lawns, Reuters reported.

Yet her defeat to Aryna Sabalenka in the French Open semi-finals in early June ended her chances of a fourth straight title in Paris and ensured few were tipping her for a career-best run at Wimbledon.

"I think I'm not going to have seasons where the pressure is not going to be kind of forced on me from the expectations from the outside anymore," she said after setting up a Saturday showdown against American Amanda Anisimova.

"Every year I guess it's kind of the same but I feel sometimes I can handle it better or ignore it. Sometimes a bit worse.

"I don't know. Like, honestly, I think it's easier if you haven't won Roland Garros and also if you had more time to practice.

"If I win Roland Garros and then I come here and everybody ask me already about... They put, like, super high expectations."

Five-times Grand Slam winner Swiatek was in a league of her own on a scorching Centre Court on Thursday, blitzing past Tokyo Olympic champion Bencic in the blink of an eye.

She has dropped only one set in her run to the final and suddenly looks at home on grass, a surface she has previously struggled to master.

"Every point is different and every match I need to adjust my game but for sure I feel like I improved my movement," she said, summing up what had changed for her on the surface. "I’m serving really well and I feel really confident, so I’m just going for it and it’s working so I will keep doing that."