For the first time in their careers, Americans Taylor Fritz and Emma Navarro will play in the semi-finals of a Grand Slam and, to the delight of the public, it will be on home soil, at the US Open.
On Tuesday, Fritz, ranked 12th in the world, showed nerves of steel to defeat the German Alexander Zverev (4th), finalist in 2020, 7-6 (7/2), 3-6, 6-4, 7-6 (7/3).
“It’s an incredible feeling. I’ve played quite a few quarter-finals in recent years and today was not the same: I felt like it was really my day to go one more round. It’s good that it’s here, on this court (Arthur-Ashe), at the US Open, in front of my home crowd,” commented the 26-year-old Californian.
He had already played four quarter-finals in Majors without going any further (Wimbledon 2022, US Open 2023, Australian Open and Wimbledon 2024).
On Tuesday at Flushing Meadows, Fritz relied in particular on his excellent serve: he did not have to defend a single break point in the first set. Having failed to convert one of the four he had, he ended up pocketing the set in the tie break.
The second set quickly turned to Zverev’s advantage, but then the arm wrestling resumed. Until the deciding game of the fourth set.
“Having a big serve helps, but against the very best, the ball comes back more often. I worked a lot to complete my range of shots so that I had to rely less on my serve,” he stressed, particularly referring to the net drives and drop shots.
On Friday, he will face another American, Frances Tiafoe (20th) or the Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov (9th) to try to reach the final. They must decide between them on Tuesday at the end of the night session.
Two days after knocking out defending champion Coco Gauff, Navarro continued her winning ways and beat Paula Badosa to also reach her first major semi-final.
– “US Open baby !” –
“It’s crazy to have qualified for the semi-finals. US Open baby!” exclaimed the world number 12 after her 6-2, 7-5 victory over the Spaniard (29th).
“It’s so important to me… With my coach, we’ve been working together since I was 14 or 15, so it’s eight years. We’ve done a lot of good work together,” she said of her coach Peter Ayers.
At 23, she will face the outgoing finalist Aryna Sabalenka (2nd) or the Paris Olympic champion Qinwen Zheng (7th) on Thursday for a place in the final, who will decide at the start of the night session on Tuesday.
While she had only reached the second round once in a Major (Roland-Garros 2023), Navarro has experienced meteoric rise this year: 3rd round at the Australian Open, 8th final at Roland-Garros, quarter-final at Wimbledon and at least semi-final at Flushing Meadows, for her eighth Major.
The American won her first and only WTA title to date last January in Hobart (hard).
On Tuesday in New York, she had the best start but, after winning the first set, she suffered a drop in form which allowed Badosa to escape 5-1 in the second.
As the players seemed to be heading towards an inevitable deciding set, Badosa collapsed and left her opponent with six straight games.
– An ant –
It was even on the verge of tears that she played the twelfth game of the set, the last of the match, on her serve.
Suffering from chronic back pain, Badosa ended her season last year after withdrawing from Flushing Meadows and did not return to competition until June.
The former world No. 2 reached the quarter-finals of a Grand Slam for the second time in her career, after Roland-Garros 2021.
On Tuesday, she highlighted her state of nervousness which completely paralyzed her.
“In the second set, there was a moment where I felt a little good, but at no time were my legs fast. I was reacting slowly, and when I’m like that, I feel very small on the court,” she explained.
“After I had achieved the two breaks, I started to feel bad again, negative phrases invaded my head, and there was such a noise inside me that I only wanted to leave the court,” she added, specifying that she had felt like an “ant”.
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