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Fairytale continues for Emma Navarro at the US Open as American, 23, beats teary Paula Badosa to reach semi-final - and guarantee herself $1MILLION
Emma Navarro beat Paula Badosa to reach her first Grand Slam semi-final, and afterwards thanked her father for realizing his daughter was not suited to the grind of a 9-5 job.
'I want to thank my dad (billionaire financier Ben) because I think he saw the vision from when I was really young,' said the No19 seed. 'He knew maybe I was a little bit at ADHD or something to be sitting in a classroom or in a nine to five. He saw something in me from a young age. So thanks dad for sending me on this journey.'
The 23-year-old, born right here in New York, comfortably took the opening set but it looked for all the world as though we were headed for a deciding set on Arthur Ashe as Badosa took a 5-1 lead in the second.
But Navarro kept plugging away and Badosa's game spiralled, shipping six games in a row to give the American No19 seed a 6-2, 7-5 victory.
A top college player for the Virginia Cavaliers, the 2021 NCAA champion, Navarro's adaptation to the professional tour has been remarkably smooth. Excluding wildcards, her first tour-level match was in May last year and little over a year later she is into the last four of a Slam.
Emma Navarro celebrates after booking her place in a first ever Grand Slam semi-final
Paula Badosa struggled to keep pace with the young American, who was born in New York
Navarro beat Coco Gauff to get here, as the defending champion produced an error-strewn performance with 19 double faults and 60 unforced errors.
After this match, especially Badosa's second-set collapse, a pattern is emerging: Navarro seems to have the priceless habit of making her opponents play badly.
She is not going to blast anyone off the court but Navarro's tricky game, a kaleidoscopic blend of spins and slices, is obviously uncomfortable to play against.
This was actually a battle between two women born in New York. The Navarros decamped to Charleston when Emma was an infant but Badosa lived here until her Spanish parents moved to Barcelona when Paula was seven.
Navarro is now guaranteed to win $1,000,000 after reaching the final four of the tournament
Navarro takes in the applause of the crowd after sealing the straight-sets victory on Tuesday
Badosa, who has struggled so much with a stress fracture of the back, was playing the kind of tennis that brought her to world No2 in the second set until suddenly she began to miss.
Navarro, sensing the kill, upped her own level and won 24 of the final 28 points, delivering the coup de grace with a trademark drop shot.
'After I got it back to 5-2 (in the second set), I kind of had an inkling that it might be two sets,' said Navarro. 'I just wanted to stay really tough and stick in there, even if I did lose the second set, I wanted to set the tone for the third set.
'I'm just really happy with my performance today and crazy moving on to the semi finals.'