(September 3, 2024) FLUSHING, NY – No. 13 seed Emma Navarro defeated No. 26 Paula Badosa 6-2, 7-5 to reach the US Open semifinals, her first trip to a major semifinal. The 23-year-old Navarro, won 24 of the last 28 points, coming back from being down 1-5 in the second set.
Navarro backed up her win over the defending champion Coco Gauff in the round of 16.
“I wanna also thank my dad,” Navarro said in her on-court interview. “I think he saw a vision from the time I was really young. He knew maybe I was a bit ADHD or something to be a sitting in a class room or a 9 to 5. He saw something in me from a young age. So thanks dad for sending me on this journey.”
She also addressed her team: “It means so much to me. My coach and I have been together since I was 14 or 5. It’s been 8 years now. We’ve done a lot of great work together. Thank you for everything you do, your dedication, all the time you put into this journey, and making me into the player I am.”
“Well, I’m very disappointed with my level today, said the Spaniard. “I think she played really good and she managed the situation really well, and I was completely disaster.”
“This is the first time it happens to me in my career. I think losing a set from 5-1 up, I never did that before. So I think there is always a first time for something, so it had to come today unfortunately.
“I don’t know. I still need to think what happened, because I had two service games there also. I started to miss. I lost, I don’t know, 20 points almost in a row. It’s very weird for me because I’m quite a consistent player, so I wasn’t expecting that either.
“So I’m quite disappointed.”
“I think I felt like she, even though she was up 5-1, 5-2 after that game, I felt like she wasn’t totally confident in her ability to close out that set, so I felt like, you know, if I could push back a little bit and make her think a little bit on her service game, you know, maybe I could sneak my way back in there,” Navarro said in hew news conference.
“Yeah, I think sometimes you’re out in the court, and, yeah, you can kind of picture yourself playing a third set. When I was out there, I didn’t picture myself playing a third set. I felt like, yeah, I don’t know, I could come back and do it in two.”
“She’s a very complete player,” Badosa said of Navarro. “First of all, and that’s very important when you go to a slam to put your emotions on the side. That’s maybe the thing that sometimes I don’t handle pretty well.
“She does that really well. Then she’s very talented. Very good backhand and very good forehand. She has variety in her game, so that’s really important, and she’s a great player. So congrats to her.”
She will face either No. 2 seed and two-time Australian Open winner Aryna Sabalenka or No. 7 seed and Olympic gold medalist Zheng Qinwen who play on Tuesday night.
Asked about playing Zheng to whom she lost to in the Olympics and criticized on-court when the match ended, she said: “Yeah. I don’t want to go super into the weeds with it, but I think during that match and, you know, on the practice court and the last few times I’ve played her, because we have been playing each other since we were juniors, I felt just a little bit disrespected by her. You know, I don’t want to, like I said, go too into detail with it.
“But yeah, I think she didn’t necessarily treat me or the sport with respect. That’s why I said what I said after the match. But, yeah, that’s it.”
“No, I haven’t spoken to her since,” Navarro added. “And, no, I didn’t surprise myself. I felt that way the whole match. Even if I had won, I probably would have said the same thing.
“You know, it wasn’t a sort of, in-the-moment emotional thing, it was just kind of how I felt. I think it got a lot more attention than I thought it was going to.
“Yeah, I think, you know, maybe it’s just one person’s opinion. Yeah, it wasn’t an emotional outburst. It was just kind of matter of factually how I felt.”
On playing Sabalenka: “Yeah, she’s a great player. I think she has a really good serve. I think she has really big groundstrokes. I think she’s super powerful, and, you know, covers the court well, puts a lot of pressure on you as a returner and on the serve, as well. I think she’ll, yeah, it will be a great challenge.
“And Sabalenka, similar. You know, big serve, big groundstrokes. So I probably take those two matches on kind of similarly in terms of being aggressive and pushing back against their powerful games. You know, as always, trying to scrap out some longer points and make them hit one more ball.”
“She’s been on this stage before. She’s been in this position before. But I feel like, I don’t know, she might feel like she has something to lose, whereas I feel like I have everything to go after. You know, that’s something that I work on a lot, trying to put myself in a position to go after something, you know, no, matter the match or the opponent.”
With the win she becomes the sixth American to make her US Open semifinal debut after turning 23 years old, joining Julie Heldman, Nancy Richey, Billie Jean King, Zina Garrison and Lori McNeil.
Last year’s finalist, No. 2 seed Aryna Sabalenka made quick work of No. Qinwen Zheng 6-1, 6-2, in the evening session in a rematch of the Australian Open final in January.
“Very important win,” Sabalenka said in her news conference. “It wasn’t that easy as the score looks, and she’s a great player.
“I’m really happy to win this match in two sets, and I’m really happy with the level I played today, so it was great performance.”
On playing Navarro: “She’s doing really well. Beautiful to see she’s working hard, playing really great tennis, smart tennis, moving well, hitting pretty heavy shots.
“Last two matches we played was really tough, tough matches physically and mentally. Even though I won the last one in two sets, it wasn’t that easy match, and it was very intense match.
“Yeah, I’m really looking for another great battle against her.”
“I’m gonna try to put so much pressure on her and probably try not let her do her stuff,” she added.
“I have to think about that tomorrow, and I have to talk about that tomorrow with my coach,” the Belarusia said jokingly.
“Of course the match went not in my way,” Zheng said of the loss. “I feel I really should been better. Whatever. It is tennis.”
“In the beginning of the set I could have chance to make a break, but I just didn’t get it there. Today I feel a little bit tight. And the serve also not as what I expect.
“You know, for the last match I finish really late, so yesterday I cannot have my proper practice because I have no energy from no sleep.
“Well, yeah, I believe, but today I feel I’m holding the ball better than last time. It’s just, you know, there is some key point I didn’t catch. Okay, even the score is like this, but I feel that I should have done better.”
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