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Defending champion Coco Gauff loses to Emma Navarro, leaves US Open

NEW YORK — Here’s basically all anyone needs to know about reigning 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 made more double faults, 19, than the winners, 14.

The third-seeded Gauff had won 10 straight matches at Flushing Meadows, including her first Grand Slam title a year ago.

Four of those came after she lost the opening set – including in the 2023 final and in her third-round win on Friday – but the 20-year-old from Florida could not complete the comeback this time around, despite a four-game run midway through the match in which she claimed 14 of 17 points to steal the second set and make a strong start in the third.

“It was a bit of a dip,” said the 13th-seeded Navarro, an American who was 0-2 at the US Open until this year, “but I was able to recover … and went into the third set with a fresher attitude.”

After each of her last two matches in New York, Gauff returned to the practice courts to work on her serve. That didn’t help much on Sunday, when she tied her highest double-fault total ever; she also had 19 in a loss at the 2020 French Open. Against Navarro, Gauff double-faulted three times in three different games — losing two of them, 1-all in the first set and, more importantly, 1-all in the third.

Eleven of the double faults were made in the final set alone.

Those issues aside, Gauff finished with a total of 60 unforced errors — 29 on her forehand side, the biggest weakness in her game. The 23-year-old Navarro, who also knocked out Gauff in the fourth round at Wimbledon in July, was much more consistent on Sunday, making 35 unforced errors.

“Coco is a great player and I have a lot of respect for her,” said Navarro, Gauff’s U.S. teammate at the Paris Olympics. “I know she’s going to win this tournament again next year.”

The result follows a surprise third-round loss to reigning men’s champion Novak Djokovic on Friday night, meaning the long droughts without anyone winning consecutive titles in New York will continue. The last woman to win at least two in a row was Serena Williams with three from 2012-’14; the last man to do so was Roger Federer with five from 2004-’08.

The Wimbledon victory over Gauff earned Navarro, the 2021 NCAA singles champion for the University of Virginia, her first appearance in a major quarterfinal. Her second comes Tuesday in New York against No. 26 Paula Badosa, a 6-1, 6-2 winner over Wang Yafan.