Coco Gauff Crashes Out of US Open

By Mohd Faisal Hakak Last updated Sep 2, 2024

Coco Gauff’s US Open journey has come to a premature end as the defending champions lost to fellow American Emma Navarro by 6-3 4-6 6-3 in the fourth round on Sunday.

Gauff looked far from her best as she kept making unforced errors and double faults at regular intervals in the first set. Navarro managed to break her opponent twice in the set to take the first set 6-3.

The second set was more of the same story with Navarro breaking late in the set and on course for the win. Gauff, however, showed resilience as she immediately broke back to stay in the match. The defending champ again broke her opponent’s serve for the second consecutive time to take the second set 6-4.

In the deciding set, Gauff made three double faults in a single game handing Navarro a 2-1 lead. The errors continued throughout the third set and Navarro eventually took the 3rd set 6-3.

Gauff made a total of 19 double faults and 60 unforced errors, which is the most she has made in a Grand Slam match.

“Mentally and emotionally, I gave it my all,” said 20-year-old Gauff, “Of course, there were things execution-wise, obviously I wish I could serve better. I think if I would have done that, it would have been a different story for me. But Emma played really well. She did everything well, I thought.”

With this defeat, Gauff drops out of the top five in the world rankings.

In the other women’s results, Aryna Sabalenka eased past Elise Mertens 6-2, 6-4 and 7th seed Qinwen Zheng of China came from a set down to beat Donna Vekic of Croatia by 7-6, 4-6, 6-2.

Men’s Results

Grigor Dimitrov and Andrey Rublev played a 5-set classic at the Arthur Ashe Stadium but it was the 9th-seed Bulgarian who came out top winning 6-3, 7-6,1-6, 3-6, 6-3. Taylor Fritz came from a set down to beat Casper Ruud 3-6, 6-4, 6-3, 6-2.

4th seed Alexander Zverev beat local favorite Brandon Nakashima 3-6, 6-1, 6-2, 6-2 and Frances Tiafoe defeated Alexei Popyrin 6-4, 7-6, 2-6, 6-3.

In the men’s doubles, Marcel Granollers of Spain and Horacio Zeballos of Argentina defeated Yuki Bhambri of India and Albano Olivetti of France 6-2, 6-2. Argentinian pair of Maximo Gonzalez and Andres Molteni defeated 2nd seed pair of Rohan Bopanna (India) and Matthew Ebden (Australia) by 6-1, 7-5.

US Open 2024: Day 8 Preview

World No. 1 Jannick Sinner will play American Tommy Paul in the fourth-round tie and Alex de Minaur will face off against Jordan Thompson. Jack Draper will have a tricky test against Tomas Machac and Nuno Borges will look to cause an upset against Daniil Medvedev.

In the women’s matches, World No.1 Iga Swiatek will face off against Liudmila Samsonova and Jasmine Paolini will lock horns with Karolina Muchova

Mohd Faisal Hakak

Mohd Faisal Hakak is a sports author from Kashmir. He likes to keep tabs on the sporting world with a keen interest in football, motorsports, NBA, and other marquee sports. He is a science graduate from Islamia College Srinagar.