Key events
Navarro is really canny in how she works her towards the net, hitting deep and inching towards the net like a Grandma’s Footsteps world champ. And that appears to be the advice she gets from her coach between games – she’s told to play through the court – but she’s second-best now, Badosa planted on the baseline and sending her to hither and yon but a few yards behind, forcing an error at 30-all that raises a point for the double-break. Navarro saves it but then misses a forehand so must face another … and what a shot Badosa delivers, a flat, nails backhand towards the corner and on to the line; it’s not a clean winner but it doesn’t come back, and she now leads 4-1 in set two! I hate to say it because I really enjoy Navarro, but in the first set, mentality told; now, class is telling. Badosa 2-6 4-1 Navarro
A Badosa error hands Navarro 15-all, but an ace down the T redeems it. Another follows out wide, then a gorgeous backhand, inside-out on to the sideline, gives her a 3-1 second-set lead.
A Navarro double gives Badosa 15-all but she can’t hit consistently enough to seriously intimate a second break, before Navarro clouts a fine forehand winner to secure her hold. She’s on the board in set two at 6-2 1-2.
We find ourselves at 30-all as Badosa seeks to consolidate, a swinging body-serve crowding Navarro who can’t respond, then the Spaniard’s forehand does the rest. This is better from Badosa, who’ll have known she had to improve while her opponent would most likely drop. Badosa 2-6 2-0 Navarro
Being broken for the set also means that Navarro serves first in the second and she’s been very solid so far. But has she lost focus? Very quickly it’s 0-30, but a sudden change of pace on the backhand surprises Badosa … then she goes long. Five unforceds in the first set, now three in this game! And though Badosa then goes waaaay long – she’s still not herself – Navarro swipes a backhand wide and all that hard work to win the first set might’ve been tossed in the first game of the second! She leads 6-2 0-1.
Navarro is handling the pressure much the better, racing to 0-40 and three set points. Two disappear when she drops long, but in control of the next point and at half-court, she panels a forehand down the middle when she might’ve hit a winner then, when the ball comes back, decides this is the time to try her first drop of the match despite the myriad options available, and sends it wide. Navarro leads 6-2 and is playing well, but the way Badosa ceded the set was tamer than Gentle Ben.
Marion, who’s courtside, says Badosa looks to be breathing heavily and that’s likely to be a reflection of her nerves; as Navarro makes 30-0, we learn that of the 10 rallies lasting nine shots or more, she’s won nine of them. We are, though, soon at 30-all, Navarro’s third unforced error levelling the game, then Badosa takes charge of the next exchange, zetzing forehands from the back to open the court for a winner. She might just’ve settled, but a fine forehand winner from Navarro takes us to deuce; no matter, an errant backhand means Badosa has advantage, her improvement upping the pressure, but she nets and back round we go. From there, though, Navarto closes out, painting a lovely forehand drop to secure her hold and 5-2. The first set is almost hers.
An ace down the T makes 30-15 but after a net-cord leaps up and over, Navarro goes away from the ball so all Badosa needs to do is prod it around the post … but instead she clouts into the net and makes things difficult for herself. Not that difficult. A quick point followed by another ace and it’s 2-4.
Badosa is improving, making 30-40 and doing really well to stick in the next point with a superb retrieval. But from there and once again, Navarro sends her to places she doesn’t want to be until there’s either an error or a chance to hit a winner; this time, it’s the former, and Navarro leads 4-1.
Badosa makes 30-0, but playing the second of those points, Navarro read her intentions, she just netted her backhand down the line. An ace follows, though … then another double … then another service-winner. She’s not happy with how she’s playing but she is on the board at 1-3.
My computer crashes, returning to life in time for me to see miserable Badosa at 40-30, having missed a chance to force a break point of her own. Instead, Navarro then rushes through a swift point to seal the game and a 3-0 lead. Badosa needs to get going quickly, or this set will be over.
Tremendous backhand winner for Badosa makes 15-0 but then Navarro seizes upon a slightly short ball, landing a backhand on to the baseline before coming in to clobber a forehand winner. But she then nets a forehand and disburses a double – P-R-E-S-S-U-R-E! – meaning she faces two break points – and another double cedes the early break! Navarro leads 2-0!
Terrific start from Navarro, who plays a really solid point for 15-0, directing Badosa about the court, then closes out to love. She’s in the match and if she can get her first return in, she’ll give her opponent something to think about about which to think.
And play, Navarro to serve.
Good news: Marion is in co-comms, and her meld of enthusiasm and analysis is extremely enjoyable.
In the studio, they’re split: Henman and Bartoli are going Navarro, Lopez Badosa. It’s a tight one, in other words.
…and here they come!
Our players are poised…
Back to today, though, who’ll win our first match? Badosa is the better player with the bigger game, such that if she plays well, it’s hard to see how Navarro beats her. But hers is a high-risk, high-reward style and if she’s nervous or imprecise, she’s playing someone more than able to punish her.
So who’s going to win these pots, then? On the women’s side, it’s hard to look beyond Aryna Sabalenka; of course Iga Swiatek can take her on a really good day, but she doesn’t love this surface so isn’t as confident as usual. Badosa could, on her best day; I think Navarro couldn’t.
The men’s feels more open, especially as the two only players left who’ve won a major, Jannik Sinner and Daniil Medvedev, are playing each other. But really, almost any of them could do it from here – personally I’d love to see Grigor Dimitrov do it – it just depends who finds what they need at the time they need it.
Preamble
Yo dudes, and welcome to the US Open 2024 – day nine!
For the last eight days, we were just chatting; today, we’re talking, and we begin with an absolute jazzer of a debate.
Paula Badosa has had so much aggro with her back and mental health that she thought seriously about giving up the game. Which sounds unfortunate when you type it, but when you really think about it – a potentially brilliant athlete, in her prime, having sacrificed her youth for her art, feeling unable to go on – you feel a small piece of the anguish that must’ve enveloped her. But she found a way and, over the course of 2024, the former world no 2 has gradually rediscovered the joyous power and aggression that makes her special. She’s earned this, and she’s a danger.
But so has and is Emma Navarro. At 23, she’s worked out her game and what it takes to be a top pro, a far fitter and tougher proposition than before. To get to this point, she’s beaten both Marta Kostyuk and Coco Gauff in three tough sets, and though she got tight the first time she looked set to eliminate the champ, she learnt from it and when the chance presented itself again, she devoured it with extreme prejudice. After beating Gauff to make the Wimbledon quarters, she was subsequently battered by Jasmine Paolini; she’ll be desperate to show her home crowd she’s learnt from that too.
Following them on Ashe is a weapons-grade battle of the highest degree. No one without a grand slam title has come closer to winning won than Alexander Zverev, taking Carlos Alcaraz the distance in the French Open final, having lost a two-set lead to Dominic Thiem in this competition’s 2020 final. Now, with Alcaraz and Novak Djokovic gone, he’ll once again be feeling this is his time – more acutely than ever – and given a serve and backhand that are two of the finest shots in the game, that’s with good reason.
However there’s always a however – in this case, Taylor Fritz, on the surge and conqueror of the German at Wimbledon. His serve and forehand have always been nasty and still are, but what’s changed in recent times is the belief that he can beat the best on the biggest occasions. He’s got the game to give Zverev plenty.
If that was all, it’d be enough, but there’s also a history of needle. Though the two players get on well, at Wimbledon, Zverev took issue with some of the support Fritz was getting from his box, while Instagram posts made by Fritz’s girlfriend, Morgan Riddle – later deleted – seemed to reference allegations of domestic abuse made against Zverev by two former partners – which Riddle later said was not the case.
We’ll see if any animus surfaces but either way, we’re set for what should be a brilliant day of (US Open) tennis. Awesome! Let’s go!
Play: 12pm local, 5pm BST