US Open 2024: Gauff v Navarro; Dimitrov beats Rublev in five sets in last-16 singles – live | US Open Tennis 2024

On Armstrong, Zverev leads Nakashima 3-6 6-1 4-1 and looks to headed for the last eight. But otherwise, that’s us done for today – so here’s a teaser for tomorrow. Until then, though, peace out.

Navarro says it feels so special to be playing in New York, where she was born – this is her first time on Ashe. It was tough losing the second set – she had chances but regrouped and came back for the third to play aggressive tennis with a positive mindset.

Emma Navarro (13) beats Coco Gauff (3) 6-3 4-6 6-3

Another game, another double; a service-winner down the T. But Gauff is fighting herself here, an 18th double of the match ceding 15-30 … a netted forehead restoring parity at 30-all. Another double, though, and Navarro has match point …and a look at a second serve…

Gauff broke back at 3-4 in set two and at 0-15 will fancy herself to get after it again. But coming in, she somehow fails to put away three balls at the net, Navarro retrieving superbly then, back on the baseline, she nets … and again for 15-30. Oh and look at that! Navarro sends a backhand cross to the corner, Gauff swings it back and returns to centre, another ball to the same corner follows, which is far too good. And from there, Navarro holds to 30; she’s a game away at 5-3 in the third and what’s this?! Kids with balls to get signed charging to the front for when Gauff loses! Dear me, what are the parents up to? They’re quickly sent back whence they came.

Three doubles in a game – this is the second of these – mean Gauff is at deuce. But she makes advantage when Navarro can’t return, and a service winner secures a hold to keep the match alive, more or less, at 3-4 in the third; Zverev quickly consolidates got a 2-0 third-set lead, and he looks certain to win thanks to his ability to play well for longer.

Navarro holds comfortably to 15 and at 4-2 in the third, is close to the last eight; Zverev breaks Nakashima in game one of the third, and the momentum here looks definitive.

Back on Ashe, Navarro seals her love-consolidation with a terrific get, Gauff unable to get her overhead riposte back over the net. Gauff then finds herself down 14-30 thanks to another double; she follows it with an ace. Then at the end of a long rally, Gauff mainly defending, a big forehand nabs advantage and the mood changes again when she does similarly to secure the hold another joyous leap of a forehand getting her and the crowd going. I bet she wishes it wasn’t change of ends; Navarro leads 3-2 in the third.

Zverev is serving for the second set against Nakashima at 3-6 5-1 and it’ll take something significant to stop him from rolling through this from here, I reckon. Nakashima can play well enough to win another set, for sure, but I’d be surprised if he can win two before Zverev does and, as I type we go level art one set apiece.

Navarro holds for 1-1 in the third, then offered a short ball, stomps on to it and punishes a backhand winner down the line. But has Gauff dipped again? She nets a backhand – low, too – her 32nd unforced error, but quickly makes 30-all … only to cede break point. But Navarro top-edges her return … but Gauff doubles! Scary hours for the champ who comes in and plays a loopy first volley … then a beauty of a second! Back to deuce we go, and you can see it coming before it comes – another double, her shoulder pulling her over before she’s through the ball. And yet another double presents a break in the decider that might just settle this contest! Both players know Navarro got nervous last time she was close to the win, but she leads 2-1 in the third, with a break.

Back on Armstrong, Zverev rushes through a consolidation and is much the better player now, directing Nakashima from hither to yon in the process of taking a second break. Nakashima leads 6-3 0-4.

Both players know that when it got real – really real – Navarro wilted. Just a little, but necessarily, and Gauff rushes through a hold at the start of the third; she’s looking to play points as quickly as possible, and Navarro should maybe have gone out between sets to halt her momentum.

While all that was going on, the mood changed on Ashe, Gauff holding for 5-4 and in her celebration, getting herself and the crowd going. She’s also playing better, her forehand and volleying improving, and out of nowhere she raises two set points, taking the first when Navarro goes long! We’re level at one set apiece and the champ couldn’t have left it much later, but she found enough good tennis just in time and her entire demeanour has also changed.

The question for Nakashima is whether he can play well enough to beat Zverev for as long you need to play well enough to beat Zverev. Zverev, though, keeps missing break points so we’re going back and forth, deuce-advantage … and here comes another chance for Zverev, his ninth of the match … and when Nakashima nets, he leads 2-0 in the second, having lost the first.

From 30-0, Navarro allows Gauff back into the game; Martina reckons it’s nerves because she pushed at her backhand. And the champ quickly makes break-point getting a body serve on to her backhand only to then net. No matter, another opportunity arrives immediately … and a great rally ends when she sends a backhand just long. Again, though, Gauff is soon up advantage and this time, she’s the one handed a double. We’re back on serve at 4-4 in the second, Navarro – who’s feeling the tension – by one set to love.

At 6-3 3-3, Navarro smokes a backhand down the line for 30-all and to the surprise of no one, a double cedes break point. And look at that! Gauff plays a decent drop, nicely disguised … only for Navarro to scamper in and flicks back a forehand winner down the line! She goes up a set and a break, and it’ll take something pretty significant to alter the flow of this.Emma Navarro of USA in action during her fourth round match against Coco Gauff of USA at the US Open Tennis Championships in Flushing Meadows, New York, USA, 01 September 2024. EPA/SARAH YENESEL

Nakashima saves a further break-back point with an ace (I think), then serves out to take a 6-3 lead! He did so well to stick in that game, and found some fantastic shots when he needed them most.

Up 0-30, Zverev comes in and dumps the overhead; that oversight might cost him, and when a backhand also goes into the net, Nakashima is two points away from the first set. A clever lob, though, earns a break-back point … and at the end of a brutal rally, a brilliant backhand winner pasted down the line restores deuce. That’s the best shot I’ve seen Nakashima hit so far, and what a time to do it. But up advantage, Zverev finds a forehand winner, Nakashima goes long, and here comes another chance for the break-back. And have a look! Nakashima serve-volleys – both are beautiful shots – to save himself, and I feel I must interrupt this game to update the women’s match: Navarro leads Gauff 6-3 2-3, on serve. The champ is playing a little better, I think.

Navarro-Gauff has been so compelling I’ve barely seen any of Nakashima-Zverev, but it’s been the young American who’s looked better in what I’ve seen and up 4-3, he has break point … and a big return sees Zverev net a backhand! Nakashima leads 5-3 and will shortly serve foe the first set! He thinks he’s ready for this, you can tell.

Ah, but Martina does recommend Gauff target the backhand because if it comes back cross, she can unload on her own. It might not help much if she keeps sending down doubles – another means deuce, then another for advantage. Oh dear. Gauff takes a pause to mop her face but also to compose, I imagine, and the aroma of opportunity is there for Navarro. She beat Gauff at Wimbledon, of course, but doing it in New York, when her mate is the champ, is something else and she can’t convert break point, then sends two returns long. Gauff does just enough to hold, but Navarro leads 6-3 -1.

The sole break in that set was an absolute gift, a meld of doubles and errors – there were plenty of them in the other games too. Martina notes that Navarro won’t give this away so Gauff, who nips out between sets, will have to play better if she’s to win. It feels like that is the most important adjustment, banal though it sounds, rather than anything tactical or strategic.

At the end of the longest rally of the match, 27 strokes, Navarro has 15-0 – my coverage drops out, so I don’t actually know how that happened. Then, at 30-0, a forehand error from Gauff means three set points, and only one is required! Navarro leads the champ 6-3 and though she’s not hitting the bigger shots, she’s taking fewer risks and making fewer errors.

Nakashima fights off break-point to hold for 2-1 against Zverev and looks pretty comfy out there. Meantime, a Gauff error and Navarro putaway make 0-30 but, two points away from going a set down, the champ quickly levels the game. She then finds an ace to save her at 30-40, another colossal delivery for advantage … then Navarro passes her superbly down the line. No matter, Gauff secures what might prove to be a crucial holds with another booming serve, so at 5-3, Navarro will have to serve out.

Up 40-15, Navarro offers a sniff with a loopy long forehand, then should probably get to Gauff’s return but doesn’t; deuce. Navarro, though, earns advantage with her first ace, closes out from there, and at 5-2 she’s within a game of the first set. By the looks of things, getting there will be taxing.

Down 0-15, Gauff bangs a signature backhand winner down the line, but two unforceds and a double hands over two break points … ceded with another double. That’s five in the game and Coach Calv’s message that I’ve not yet published – “Gauff has both the best and worst serve in women’s tennis” – looks extremely prescient. Navarro leads 4-2 in the first while, on Armstrong, Nakashima holds for 1-0 against Zverev

Another hold apiece but more straightforward this time, Navarro up 3-2. She’s not at all overawed by the occasion but she’s having to put in a lot of work, and on so humid a day, that might tell later, especially when the pressure is heavier.

Nakashima and Zverev arrive on to Armstrong, and this should also be good.

Gauff is into this now, working Navarro about the court by way of her notoriously erratic forehand and earning break point. In comms, Martina notes that in that situation, she’d not give Gauff a single look at a backhand return, but Navarro thinks differently and is punished. No matter: she holds for 2-1 in the first and already this is intense and hard.

Strong tracky-top game from Martina today.

Navarro holds handily then forces break point at 30-40, Gauff racing in to power-flick a backhand cross on to the outside of the sideline; that was simultaneously stuffy and brilliant. Navarro though, just carries on doing what she’s doing, reading a putaway to block back a winner with her opponent stranded, but she can’t land an attempted backhand winner, so we’re back to deuce. Another break-point disappears when Navarro nets, but a third double in the game offers a further opportunity … removed via service-winner. If Gauff gets in front in the match, she’ll be hard to catch, but if Navarro can lands the early blows, she’s a really good chance. The champ, though, is nails, and she serves out to level us up at 1-1 in the first.

Otherwise, Calv says of Nakashima that “He’s a great returner. You’ve got to hit spots and fast every time to stop it coming back with interest. And he’s pretty good at everything else.”

Against Zverev, the aim will always be to attack the forehand – likewise against Gauff, who’s just started on Ashe against her good mate Navarro.

Coach Calv is back! “Nakashima is in great form,” he says. “He could definitely win. But Zverev has become really good at not losing to people he shouldn’t lose to.”

I agree – I think I wrote last week he’s now where Murray was in 2011: able to beat excellent players who play their best against him almost all of the time, just not able to find that last bit against the best on the biggest stages.

Next on Ashe: Emma Navarro (13) v Coco Gauff (3).

Next on Armstrong: Brandon Nakashima v Alexander Zverev (4).

On we go!

Fritz says he was outplayed in the first set but fought at the beginning of the second set to fight through some difficult holds then exert scoreboard pressure at the end. At that stage, he felt like he was getting more looks at Ruud’s second serve and did a good job to force the break.

As the roof opens, he says he’s taking it one match at a time though he knows some good players have gone out. In 2022, he came in saying he could win it and went out in the first round, so he’s keeping it quiet and will he what happens next.

Taylor Fritz (12) beats Casper Ruud (8) 3-6 6-6 6-3 6-2

Grigor Dimitrov (9) beats Andrey Rublev (6) 6-3 7-6(3) 1-6 3-6 6-3

Brilliant from Dimitrov, a 129mph body-serve making 40-0, three first deliveries landed. He might’ve shrunk after being hauled back to 2-2 from 2-0, but he’s kept doing what he’s doing, serving well, hitting his backhand beautifully, and keeping cool when the pressure was at its most terrifying.

Rublev holds to 15, a vicious ace whipped down the T sealing the deal; Dimitrov will now serve for the match at 5-3 in the fifth, while following change of ends, Fritz will do likewise at 5-2 in the fourth.

Fritz is close too, now up 4-1 30-0 in the fourth, but back to Ashe, Serena and Alicia Keys are bopping together at change of ends; lovely stuff.

Rublev holds for 2-4, then annihilates a forehand winner for 0-15. And though he quickly nets a backhand, a Dimitrov error is followed by a double; 15-40 and two break-back points. P-R-E-S-S-U-R-E! Which is handled well, a big serve returned long, then a second serve hit hard into the body makes deuce. Hold tight Griggzy, it takes bottle to be that aggressive in that situation, and next point, a stretch-volley forces Rublev to play another shot and he flicks his forehand putaway long! What an oversight that is, and an ace secures the hold that might just settle a fine, exciting match. Dimitrov leads 5-2 in the fifth and is one game away from the quarters.

Well Taylor Fritz has, playing a ridiculous point to make 0-40; Ruud does really well to claw his way to deuce, but down advantage, a double hands over the double-break ant at 3-0 in the fourth, this feels over. and Rublev-Dimitrov isn’t far off, the Bulgarian consolidating comfortably for 4-1 in the fifth.

Fritz breaks Ruud at the first time of asking in set four and it’s now an even bigger ask for the number eight seed to get back into this; he must now break one of the most impregnable serves in the game just to stay in the match. The consolidation, though, is sealed with a kiss an ace, while, on Ashe, Dimitrov caresses a wondrous backhand down the line to raise break point and Rublev drops long to secure it! The Bulgarian leads 3-1 in the fifth and having surrendered a two-set lead, has he hit a seam just when he needs to?

Dimitrov’s backhand is a joke, drive, slice and lob all involved in the point that gives him 30-0. A service-winner follows, and a love-hold is quickly secured for 2-1.

Ruud was two sets down to Jerry Shang in the last round, but Fritz, with his serve and in nick, is a different proposition; I’d be pretty surprised were he able to win two sets in a row. Meantime a hold apiece means we’re level at 1-1 in the fifth on Ashe, both men hitting the cover off it; it’s great, tense stuff.

Back on Ashe, Dimitrov is forced through deuce for his hold in game one of the fifth, but secures it with an ace. He needed that.