Coco Gauff had major problems the last time she faced Emma Navarro, and the same thing happened this time around at the 2024 US Open.
The two Americans played their first-ever match earlier this year in Auckland, and Gauff won easily. Their second encounter came at Wimbledon, where Navarro won comfortably by forcing Gauff to hit the forehand frequently.
It was a sound tactic because the 20-year-old tends to struggle with it often, leading to many errors. Navarro is a smart player who changes tactics depending on the opponent. Her approach against Gauff is to force her into errors.
As Gauff is known as a volatile baseliner, it can happen quite often. It's been happening a lot recently during her struggles. She had terrible performances leading up to the US Open but found a better level in New York.
Even though it was better, it still wasn't that great, and this was a tough matchup for her. It certainly proved to be in the opening set as Navarro managed to outsmart her opponent, winning it 6-3. She forced the ball to her forehand and watched her opponent make mistakes.
Gauff totaled 21 unforced errors in those 9 games, which is an absurd number of errors for a player of her caliber. One thing that bailed out the defending champion in previous matches was her serve, but it wasn’t working that well, either.
She had five double faults in the opening set and hit her first serve only 50% of the time. Navarro was very aggressive and sometimes too eager, but she had to play that way if she hoped to win.
Constant pressure was what could yield a good result, and it did early, so she had no reason to change it, even when it stopped working for a while.
The start of the second set didn’t offer anything different, as Gauff barely survived an early break chance for Navarro. The 2023 US Open winner stabilized on her serve a little bit but still struggled to really find any rhythm from the ground.
After six games of the second set, she had 12 unforced errors. It was a bit better mark than in the opening set, but overall, it was a bad display from the defending champion. An eighth double fault gave Navarro another break point chance.
She converted it to take a 4-3 lead in the second set, only two games away from ousting the defending champion. However, Gauff broke back immediately, after which Navarro couldn't stay competitive in the second set.
Gauff won the set 6-4 after playing much better in those final few games. Still, she couldn't keep the good level for a long time, because she lost her serve on a back-to-back double fault and deuce in the third game of the final set.
The match remained close but Navarro was playing superb tennis to barely cling on to her lead. The match ended very fittingly with more double faults and yet another break.
Gauff just massively struggled on her serve, hitting 19 double faults, which was not good enough to win, losing the match 3-6, 6-4, 3-6.
Emma Navarro vs Coco Gauff Match Stats:
| Emma Navarro | Coco Gauff | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Aces | 2 |
| 2 | Double Faults | 19 |
| 66% | First Serve % | 46% |
| 67% (38/57) | Points Won After First Serve % | 79% (37/47) |
| 66% (19/29) | Points Won After Second Serve % | 40% (22/55) |
| 33% (4/12) | Break Point Conversion | 40% (2/5) |
| 20 | Winners | 14 |
| 35 | Unforced Errors | 59 |
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