WIMBLEDON, England — First Aryna Sabalenka withdrew before the tournament began because of injury, then world No. 1 Iga Swiatek went out on Saturday. Now on Sunday, Coco Gauff saw her hopes of winning a first Wimbledon title dashed when she lost 6-3, 6-4 to fellow American Emma Navarro, who is through to her first Grand Slam quarterfinal.
Gauff led by a break at 3-2 in the first set, but Navarro broke back immediately, never allowing the world No. 2 to settle or find her rhythm. Navarro broke again to win the opening set and then pulled away in the second, seemingly showing no signs of pressure.
Navarro’s victory means that Jasmine Paolini of Italy is the only player in the bottom half of the draw to have previously made a Grand Slam final. Navarro will play Paolini in the quarters on Tuesday.
“I don’t have a ton of words to say right now,” a delighted and seemingly amazed Navarro said. “I’m just really grateful to be out here on Centre Court. I think I played really aggressively. Coco’s a really amazing player, I have a ton of respect for her. I wanted to play aggressive and push back against her game and I’m happy I was able to do that.”
The takeaways from this stunning match:
Did the pressure get to Gauff?
After Swiatek’s shock defeat by Yulia Putintseva, some were giving Gauff an almost free ride to the title — which seemed premature, given that the American has never been past the last 16 in her four previous visits.
After winning the US Open last September, Gauff has become a consistent performer in the majors, reaching the semis at both the Australian Open and French Open. But against Navarro, Gauff’s game didn’t flow as it usually does and Navarro took full advantage.
It wasn’t that Gauff played terribly; it’s just that she was unable to hit through Navarro the way she had done her three previous opponents, who had won just 10 games between them.
“I think we had a game plan going in [but] I felt that it wasn’t working,” Gauff said after. “Today was one of those rare moments where I felt I didn’t have solutions. I think today mentally there was a lot going on. I felt like I wanted more direction from the box.”
Navarro, by contrast, had little or no pressure on her shoulders and was full of confidence after knocking out
Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at www.espn.com – TENNIS…