UVA tennis alum Emma Navarro pulled a stunning upset at Wimbledon, knocking out world #2 Coco Gauff in straight sets, 6-4, 6-3, in a fourth-round match on Sunday.
Navarro, the 2021 NCAA singles champ at Virginia, the #19 seed in the women’s draw, had already defeated former world #1 Naomi Osaka in the second round.
She had to overcome a first-set loss in the third round to overcome Diana Shnaider in three sets to get to the fourth-round match with Gauff, one of the tournament’s favorites.
“I don’t have a ton of words,” Navarro told reporters after the upset, which improved her record in 2024 Grand Slam singles to 9-2.
“Coco’s obviously an amazing player. I have a ton of respect for her, and what she’s done at such a young age is really amazing. I knew she wasn’t going to make it easy on me tonight. But I wanted to play aggressively and push back against her game, and I think I was able to do that,” Navarro said.
The win puts Navarro into the quarterfinal of a Slam event for the first time in her career.
She will next face #7 seed Jasmine Paolini on Tuesday.