Emma Navarro reacts after defeating Paula Badosa of Spain in the quarterfinals of the US Open on Tuesday, September 3, 2024, in New York.

Pamela Smith/AP

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Pamela Smith/AP

NEW YORK – Emma Navarro’s first Grand Slam semifinal will be at the U.S. Open against Aryna Sabalenka, who is trying to win her second major title of the year and her third overall.

Navarro, a 13th-seeded American, made a stunning turnaround to win the last six games of her quarterfinal against Paula Badosa 6-2, 7-5 at Flushing Meadows on Tuesday, building on her surprise win over defending champion Coco Gauff.

“Sometimes you’re on the court and you can imagine playing a third set. When I was out there, I didn’t imagine playing a third set,” Navarro said, despite trailing 5-1 in the second set. “I felt like … I could come back and make it in two sets.”

Surely.

There was no such drama in Sabalenka’s 6-1, 6-2 win over No. 7 Zheng Qinwen, the gold medalist at the Paris Olympics last month, a repeat of Sabalenka’s victory in the Australian Open final.

With Roger Federer in the stands, attending the US Open for the first time since his retirement, Sabalenka put in a typically powerful performance and reached the semifinals in New York for the fourth time in a row. In 2023, she finished second behind Gauff.

Sabalenka said she saw Federer in the crowd and assumed he was there to watch Frances Tiafoe and Grigor Dimitrov play their next match.

“But still, I thought, OK, I have to play my best tennis so he can enjoy it. I have to show my skills, you know, slicing skills, coming to the net and all that stuff,” Sabalenka, a 26-year-old from Belarus who is better known for her strength, said with a laugh.

She is trying to become the first woman since Angelique Kerber in 2016 to win the major hard-court titles at the Australian Open and US Open. Sabalenka defeated Zheng in January to claim her second consecutive title at Melbourne Park.

“I just think that next time I play against her, maybe I should hold a rally better and play a little more relaxed,” said Zheng. “Because today I was obviously very nervous going into the match.”

The opponents in the other women’s semifinal will be decided on Wednesday, when No. 1 Iga Swiatek plays No. 6 Jessica Pegula and No. 22 Beatriz Haddad Maia faces unseeded Karolina Muchova.

In the men’s quarterfinals on Tuesday, American No. 12 Taylor Fritz secured his first place in the last four of a major by defeating 2020 US Open runner-up Alexander Zverev 7-6 (2), 3-6, 6-4 and 7-6 (3).

Fritz had a 0-4 record in the quarterfinals of a Grand Slam tournament, but finally made his breakthrough against Zverev, the number 4 seed tennis player whom he had also defeated in the fourth round at Wimbledon.

“I’ve seen a lot of quarterfinals in recent years, but today was just different,” said Fritz. “I really felt like it was time to take a step further.”

Tiafoe gave the Americans a third semifinalist after Grigor Dimitrov was unable to play due to an injury in the fourth set. Tiafoe led 6-3, 7-6 (5), 6-3, 4-1 and will face 12th seed Fritz in the semifinals on Friday. This puts the USA in the men’s final of its Grand Slam tournament for the first time since 2006.

Navarro should have been three points ahead of Badosa and would have taken a third set, but she won the next four points to stay in the match, starting a streak in which she scored 24 of the match’s final 28 points.

“It wasn’t looking so good in the second set, but I just tried to be really tough, hang in there and make her hit one more ball,” Navarro said. “I felt like if I could get some longer points and maybe put some pressure on her, I could come back and maybe finish it in two sets. I’m happy with how I was able to do that.”

Before this year, Navarro had never won a match in the main draw of her home major.

Badosa described herself as a “disaster” as she struggled with the pressure of reaching her first Grand Slam semifinal.

“I never had the momentum in that game. I played four or five games, OK. It was 5-1, but I never felt like myself on the court,” Badosa said. “I lost, I don’t know, almost 20 points in a row. That’s very strange for me because I’m a pretty consistent player, so I didn’t expect that either.”

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

But the 2021 NCAA singles champion for Virginia was ready for this duel between the New York natives. She prevailed against Badosa, winning the first three games and then taking advantage of the opportunity Badosa offered her late.

Navarro is the sixth player in the last 40 years to reach the semifinals of the US Open without first winning the tournament’s main draw, joining recent champions Bianca Andreescu in 2019 and Emma Raducanu in 2021.