Emma Navarro Advances to US Open Semifinals

brianljordan · Sep 1, 2024

Emma Navarro, who won the NCAA title in 2021, advanced to the quarterfinals of the US Open in NYC today by beating #3 seed (and 2023 US Open Champion) Coco Gauff. Emma's seeded #13 and the first NCAA singles champion to reach the quarterfinals in the US Open. She's had the best year of her young professional career - especially in the Grand Slams. She reached the third round of the Australian Open, fourth round of the French Open, quarterfinals of Wimbledon, and is hopefully on her way to the semifinals (or finals!) of the US Open. She won $1.7M of her $2.5M career earnings this season. She'll get another $1M if she makes it to the semifinals and she'll play for that on Tuesday against #26 seed Paula Badosa.

As an aside, our cheers for Danielle Collins have (largely) come to end. She had a great spring but struggled with some health issues again over the summer and departed the Olympics early and was knocked out of the US Open in the first round. She announced her retirement at the beginning of the season so that was her last Grand Slam. She's never been ranked high enough to play in the WTA Women's Championship at the end of the season so she's going to play in a couple more tournaments with the hopes of landing a spot there at the end of this season. The Athletic/NYT did a profile of her a few days ago after she lost. Here's an excerpt from the article.

She was forced to spend years too long convincing doctors of her endometriosis, as well as dealing with rheumatoid arthritis. She likes being at home. She wants a family. She wants an identity outside of tennis.

But not long after that announcement, she took off on a serious hot streak that culminated with winning titles in Miami and Charleston. Suddenly, she was a threat to win any tournament she entered, just as she had been earlier in her career, when she made the finals of the Australian Open. Didn’t matter, Collins said. She was done.

Collins can be the livest of wires. Not so Tuesday, when she spoke with a sadness and disappointment over not being able to compete in top shape. She’s had a ‘Ten Plagues’ kind of month, filled with illness and injury. She will play as much as her body will allow her to the rest of the season. And then she will move on. “I like the idea of not traveling 40 weeks out of the year,” she said. “That kind of sounds good at this point in my career with all the travel that I’ve done, even though I have enjoyed it a lot.”

Tennis got Collins what she really wanted, which was a college degree from the University of Virginia. Her mother is a nursery school teacher and her father had a small landscaping business. She is a product of public tennis courts and schools, who eventually sacrificed so much of the quiet time at home she relishes for the sport. It paid off, with nearly $10 million in prize money and much more in endorsement deals. Plus, the young woman who didn’t have a passport when she graduated from college ended up seeing the world

playgroundhoo · Sep 2, 2024