Emma Navarro beats Paula Badosa to reach US Open semifinals - ESPN

NEW YORK — Emma Navarro rode a stunning turnaround right into her first Grand Slam semifinal, beating Paula Badosa 6-2, 7-5 at the US Open on Tuesday to follow up her upset of defending champion Coco Gauff.

Trailing 5-1 in the second set and three points from having to go to a deciding third, Navarro won the next four points to stay alive, starting a stretch in which she won 24 of the final 28 points of the match.

Navarro, the No. 13-seeded American who had never even won a match in the main draw of her home major before this year, advanced to face No. 2 Aryna Sabalenka or seventh-seeded Qinwen Zheng in Thursday's semis.

Navarro, 23, who ousted the No. 3-seeded Gauff on Sunday in the fourth round, ran through the first set in 29 minutes before the No. 26-seeded Badosa opened a 5-1 lead in the second.

But when Navarro broke the Spaniard in the next game, the player who leads the WTA Tour with 18 wins in three sets had a feeling she might not need to play one.

«I just felt like I might be able to win this in two sets,» Navarro said.

She did, taking six straight games with some help from Badosa, who said she was a «disaster» while dealing with the pressure of trying to reach her first Grand Slam semifinal.

«I never had the momentum in this match. I played four or five games OK. It was 5-1, but I never felt myself on the court,» Badosa said.

«I lost, I don't know, 20 points almost in a row. It's very weird for me because I'm quite a consistent player, so I wasn't expecting that either.»

Navarro also beat Gauff in the fourth round at Wimbledon before losing to eventual runner-up Jasmine Paolini in the next round, a 6-2, 6-1 rout in less than an hour.

But the 2021 NCAA singles champion at Virginia was ready for this matchup