US Open 2024 'PRETTY INSANE' FOR NAVARRO

She stuns error-strewn 2023 champ Gauff, adding she deserves to play with the best

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American Emma Navarro said "I deserve to be on this stage" after she sent defending champion Coco Gauff to the US Open scrapheap, alongside Novak Djokovic and Carlos Alcaraz.

As Gauff exited in a blizzard of mistakes, American hopes were rekindled when Frances Tiafoe and Taylor Fritz reached the men's last eight, igniting hopes of a first home-grown male Grand Slam champion since Andy Roddick's win in New York in 2003.

The third-ranked Gauff slumped to a 6-3, 4-6, 6-3 fourth-round loss to her fellow American on the back of 19 double faults and 60 unforced errors. This means Serena Williams remains the last woman to successfully defend her US Open title, back in 2014.

"I lost in the first round the last two years and now to be making the quarter-finals is pretty insane," said Navarro, who will face Spain's Paula Badosa for a place in the semi-finals.

"I've been out on big courts before where I just felt totally overwhelmed and almost like it's an out-of-body experience, but I didn't feel like that today." Gauff's loss was another body blow to the season's final Grand Slam.

Djokovic, the defending men's champion, was knocked out in the third round to suffer his earliest exit in 18 years.