Coco Gauff of the USA reacts after her loss to Emma Navarro of the USA during the fourth round of the US Open tennis tournament on Sunday, September 1, 2024, in New York.

Pamela Smith/AP

Hide caption

Show/hide label

Pamela Smith/AP

NEW YORK — That’s pretty much all you need to know about defending champion Coco Gauff’s 6-3, 4-6, 6-3 loss to Emma Navarro in the fourth round of the U.S. Open on Sunday: Gauff ended up making more double faults (19) than winners (14).

It was the latest in a series of early exits for her in recent weeks, including a third-round exit at the Paris Olympics and finishing in the top two in hard-court preparatory tournaments before arriving in New York.

“I think there are 70 other players in the field who would love to have a summer like mine, even though I’ve probably done the least well this time of year,” said the third-seeded Gauff, who was 18-1 on hard courts on her North American tour 12 months ago, including her first Grand Slam title. “So many people want to get to the fourth round. So many people want to go to the Olympics. So many people want to be the flag bearer. It’s a matter of perspective.”

The 20-year-old from Florida fought her way back into the match with a four-game run in which she scored 14 of 17 points and secured the second set.

“I had a little lull there,” said 13th-seeded Navarro, an American who was 0-2 at the U.S. Open until this year, “but I was able to pull myself together.”

After each of her last two matches in New York, Gauff went back to the practice courts to work on her serve. That didn’t help her much on Sunday, when she set a career-high number of double faults: she also had 19 in a loss at the 2020 French Open. Against Navarro, Gauff made three double faults in four different matches. Eleven of the double faults came in the final set alone.

Gauff attributed her problems to a mixture of issues with her technique – “I often go to the left side on my serve and I’m aware of that, but I guess it’s difficult in the moment to try not to do it,” she explained – and in her head.

“Sometimes it’s more of an emotional, mental thing, because if I go on the practice court now, I would do about 30 serves in a row. I’ve done that before,” Gauff said. “I think it’s also just kind of a mental hurdle that I have to overcome when the time comes. … But I definitely want to pay attention to other things, because I don’t want to lose any more matches like that.”

She finished the match with a total of 60 unforced errors – a whopping 29 of them on the forehand side.

The 23-year-old Navarro, who Gauff eliminated in the fourth round of Wimbledon in July, played much more calmly on Sunday, but still made 35 unforced errors.

“It was a battle of willpower for a while. But I’m proud of my performance today,” said Navarro, a U.S. teammate of Gauff’s at the Paris Games. “I was able to persevere in some difficult moments.”

That result followed a third-round loss to defending champion Novak Djokovic on Friday, meaning the long dry spells without back-to-back titles will continue in New York. The last woman to win at least two titles in a row was Serena Williams with three titles from 2012 to 2014; the last man to do so was Roger Federer with five titles from 2004 to 2008.

Frances Tiafoe eliminated No. 28 seed Alexei Popyrin, the player who surprised Djokovic, with a 6-4, 7-6 (3), 2-6, 6-3 victory on Sunday night. The No. 20 seed advances to his third consecutive US Open quarterfinal, where he will play No. 9 seed Grigor Dimitrov, who beat Andrey Rublev 6-3, 7-6 (3), 1-6, 3-6, 6-3. 23-time Grand Slam champion Williams watched and gave a thumbs-up at the end of the match.

Also on Sunday, Taylor Fritz (number 12) prevailed, defeating three-time Grand Slam finalist Casper Ruud 3-6, 6-4, 6-3 and 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 and 6-2.

“I’m at a point now where I’m still happy if I reach the quarterfinals, but I wouldn’t be happy if it ended here,” said Fritz, who has yet to reach a semifinal of a Grand Slam tournament. “I’m definitely at a point where I really want more.”

The Wimbledon victory over Gauff gave Navarro, the 2021 NCAA singles champion for the University of Virginia, her first appearance in a major quarterfinal. Her second match is Tuesday in New York against No. 26 Paula Badosa, who won 6-1, 6-2 over Wang Yafan. The other women’s match that day is between No. 2 Aryna Sabalenka — she was runner-up to Gauff last year and beat Elise Mertens 6-2, 6-4 on Sunday — and either No. 7 Zheng Qinwen or No. 24 Donna Vekic.

In the quarterfinals, Navarro will have another chance to play in front of a large crowd at Arthur Ashe Stadium. Until Sunday, she had never hit a ball there – and still felt pretty comfortable.

“I’ve been on big courts before where I just felt totally overwhelmed and almost like it was an out-of-body experience. But today I didn’t feel that way,” said Navarro. “I felt comfortable from the moment I stepped on the court, which surprised me a little bit. I had actually prepared myself for the worst in terms of being overwhelmed and nervous.”

The performance was certainly not like that.

Gauff was the one who couldn’t give her best.

“I expected more, but in the end it happened,” said Gauff, “and I know I can still change it.”