NEW YORK — This is pretty much all anyone needs to know about reigning champion Coco Gauff’s 6-3, 4-6, 6-3 defeat to Emma Navarro in the US Open Fourth round on Sunday: Gauff finished with more double faults, 19, than winners, 14.
“I don’t want to lose these kinds of matches anymore,” said Gauff, who attributed her serve problems to a combination of mechanical and mental issues.
The Gauff takes 3rd place had won 10 straight races at Flushing Meadows, including the run to her first Grand Slam title a year ago.
Four of those came after she lost the opening set — including in the 2023 final and in her third-round victory on Friday — but the 20-year-old from Florida could not complete the comeback this time around, despite a four-game run midway through the match that saw her claim 14 of 17 points to steal the second set and make a strong start in the third.
“I had a bit of a dip there,” said the 13th-seeded Navarro, an American who was 0-2 at the US Open until this year, “but I was able to recover … and went into the third set with a fresher mindset.”
After each of her last two matches in New York, Gauff returned to the practice courts to work on her serve. That didn’t help much on Sunday, when she tied her highest double-fault total ever: 19 in a loss at the 2020 French Open. Against Navarro, Gauff double-faulted three times in three different games — losing two of them, 1-all in the first set and, more importantly, 1-all in the third.
Eleven of the double faults were made in the final set alone.
Those issues aside, Gauff finished with a total of 60 unforced errors — a whopping 29 on her forehand side, the biggest weakness in her game. The 23-year-old Navarro, who also eliminated Gauff in the fourth round at Wimbledon in Julywas much more stable on Sunday and made 35 unnecessary errors.
“Coco is a great player and I have a tremendous amount of respect for her,” said Navarro, a U.S. teammate of Gauff’s at the Paris Olympics, “and I know she will come back and win this event again someday.”
This result follows the surprising third round loss of reigning men’s champion Novak Djokovic on Friday night, meaning the long droughts without anyone winning consecutive titles in New York will continue. The last woman to win at least two in a row was Serena Williams with three from 2012-14; the last man to do so was Roger Federer with five from 2004-08.
Wimbledon victory over Gauff deserved Navarrothe 2021 NCAA singles champion for the University of Virginia, her first major quarterfinal appearance. Her second will come Tuesday in New York against No. 26 Paula Badosa, a 6-1, 6-2 winner over Wang Yafan.
Earlier on Sunday, as 23-time Grand Slam champion Williams looked on at Arthur Ashe Stadium and gave a thumbs-up at the end of the match, ninth-seeded Grigor Dimitrov defeated Andrey Rublev 6-3, 7-6 (3), 1-6, 3-6, 6-3 to reach the quarterfinals.
The sixth-seeded Rublev is known for his violent displays of frustration and required medical attention from a trainer for a cut on his left hand after hitting it against his racket in the first set. He punched himself in the face during a meltdown in the tiebreaker of the second set, which he led 3-1 before losing the next six points.
Dimitrov now faces No. 20 Frances Tiafoe or No. 28 Alexei Popyrin, the player who surprised Djokovic on Friday.
Also in action on Saturday was No. 12 Taylor Fritz, who defeated three-time Grand Slam finalist Casper Ruud 3-6, 6-4, 6-3, 6-2. Fritz’s opponent in the quarterfinals is 2020 US Open runner-up Alexander Zverev, who defeated Brandon Nakashima 3-6, 6-1, 6-2, 6-2.
“I’m at the point now where I’m still happy to get to the quarterfinals, but I wouldn’t be happy if it ended here,” said Fritz, who has yet to reach a Grand Slam semifinal. “I’m definitely at the point where I really want more than that.”
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