Defending champion Coco Gauff loses in the U.S. Open’s fourth round to Emma Navarro

Defending champion Coco Gauff loses in U.S. Open fourth round due to serving issues, more double faults than winners.

This is pretty much all anyone needs to know about defending champion Coco Gauff's 6-3, 4-6, 6-3 loss to Emma Navarro in the U.S. Open's fourth round on Sunday (September 1, 2024): Gauff wound up with more double-faults, 19, than winners, 14.

“I don't want to lose matches like this anymore,” Gauff said, attributing her serving problems to a mix of mechanical issues and mental ones.

The No. 3-seeded Gauff had won 10 matches in a row at Flushing Meadows, including the run to her first Grand Slam title a year ago.

Four of those came after she dropped the opening set — including in the 2023 final and in her third-round victory on Friday — but the 20-year-old from Florida could not complete the comeback this time. That's despite a mid-match, four-game run in which she claimed 14 of 17 points to steal the second set and get off to a good start in the third.

“Had a little bit of a lull there,” said the 13th-seeded Navarro, an American who was 0-2 at the U.S. Open until this year, “but I was able to regroup ... and come into the third set with a fresher mindset.”

After each of her past two contests in New York, Gauff headed back out onto the practice courts to work on her serve. That didn't help much on Sunday, when she tied her career high for double-faults: She also had 19 in a loss at the 2020 French Open. Against Navarro, Gauff delivered a trio of double-faults in three different games — two of which she lost, at 1-all in the first set and, more significantly, at 1-all in the third.

Eleven of the double-faults came in the final set alone.