Number 19 seed Emma Navarro continued her breakout season on Sunday by dispatching number two seed Coco Gauff 6-4, 6-3 at Wimbledon to reach the first Grand Slam quarter-final of her career.
Navarro controlled the round of 16 match against her fellow American while winning in just 74 minutes. She will face seventh-seeded Italian Jasmine Paolini in the quarters in London.
Gauff, the reigning US Open champion, has never reached the Wimbledon quarter-finals and was plagued by 25 unforced errors while accumulating just 12 winners. Her loss is a stunner, but Gauff said people shouldn’t be surprised when a lower seed beats a higher one.
Navarro, 23, won the NCAA women’s singles championship at Virginia in 2021 and picked up her first WTA crown in January by beating Elise Mertens of Belgium in the Hobart International in Australia.
Her win over Gauff was her second over a number 2-ranked player this year. She beat then-No. 2 Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus in three sets at Indian Wells in March.
And there was heartbreak for British fans as their last hope, Emma Raducanu was dumped out by 123rd-ranked qualifier Lulu Sun who sealed a 6-2 5-7 6-2 win over the wildcard.
Raducanu knew all about the dangers posed by qualifiers at the majors after she herself had triumphed as one at the US Open nearly three years ago.
Yet Sun’s performance was so impressive that even Raducanu must have been slightly astonished by the ice-cool composure and unflappable bravery the New Zealander showed to outplay the 2021 Flushing Meadows champion in front of a pumped-up home crowd on Centre Court.
