Trailing 5-1 in the second set, Emma Navarro figured she could stretch the ropes and win without playing another set. Instead, anxiety made Paula Badosa feel like “ants.”
Navarro reached his first Grand Slam semifinal by defeating Badosa 6-2, 7-5 at the US Open.
Thirteenth, three points away from going into the third set Pre-classified He took advantage of the fall of the Spanish opponent. He scored 24 of the last 28 points, finishing with one drop shot.
Navarro, 23 and who has never won a Slam main draw match in his home country, secured his debut in the world’s top 10.
“Everything looked bad in the second set, but my intention was not to give up, he had to hit one more ball,” Navarro said. “I had a feeling that if I could increase the points, maybe put a little more pressure on him, he would be able to come back and close it out in two sets.”
After eliminating defending champion Coco Goff in the previous round, Navarro won the first set which she finished in 29 minutes..
The story was different at the start of the second set, when Badosa raced to a 5-1 lead.
But in the next game, when Navarro broke the serve of Badosa, the WTA Tour leader (18) in three sets this year, it became clear that a third set would not be necessary.
“When I got close to 5-2, I felt like I could (end it) in two sets,” Navarro said in a courtside interview. “I just tried to stay strong and play hard. “I can’t see the future, but maybe I could do a little bit of it today.”
Badosa completely collapsed.
“I was a complete disaster,” summarized Badosa, who committed 35 unforced errors, 20 more than Navarro.
“This is the first time this has happened to me (dropping a set that I won 5-1). There’s always a first time, and unfortunately it was today (yesterday).”
Suffering from a back ailment since the middle of the year, Badosa was looking to reach his first Grand Slam semifinal. But he doesn’t know how to handle the pressure of the moment.
“Desire and love it so much… my inner noise made me so small,” she hinted. “Eventually you will become an ant.”
Navarro became just the sixth player in 40 years to reach the US Open semifinals without a previous win in the tournament’s main draw, joining recent champions Bianca Andreescu (2019) and Emma Raducanu (2021).