Emma Navarro caused a major upset by defeating Aryna Sabalenka at Indian Wells. The home crowd was surely delighted by Navarro’s surprising victory over the highly-ranked Sabalenka.

Emma Navarro continued her breakthrough season with a 6-3, 3-6, 6-2 win against the Australian Open champion Aryna Sabalenka to reach the BNP Paribas Open quarter-finals in Indian Wells.

Navarro, who won her first WTA title in Hobart this year, was able to outlast the world No 2 in a back-and-forth contest that lasted 1hr 56min.

Navarro earned her 18th victory of the season after two breaks in the decisive match, making her the leader in WTA wins for 2024, surpassing Iga Swiatek.

One year ago, Sabalenka came in second place in Indian Wells. She recently competed against Emma Raducanu and won, but has faced difficulty with her performance since her last victory in Melbourne.

It was Navarro who claimed the decisive opening break of the first set to move 5-3 up and an ace helped to seal it to give the 22-year-old American the initiative.

The winner of two Australian Open titles made a comeback in the second set to push for a final set, during which they both achieved early breaks.

Navarro continued her momentum with three back-to-back breaks against her opponent, but it was her crucial hold that gave her a 4-1 advantage. From there, she never faltered and secured the biggest victory of her professional career.

On her 20th birthday, Coco Gauff showed her strength by easily defeating Elise Mertens with a score of 6-0, 6-2, securing her place in the quarter-finals. The talented American displayed great form, particularly in her serving and aggressive play, which proved to be too much for the 24th seeded Belgian.

Mertens failed to maintain her victory over Naomi Osaka in the previous round, only achieving four successful shots while making 21 mistakes in a match that lasted slightly more than an hour.

After Sabalenka’s loss, the number three seed Gauff’s part of the bracket became more favorable. She will either compete against the 11th seeded Russian Daria Kasatkina or unseeded Yuan Yue from China for a chance to advance to the semi-finals.

Luca Nardi experienced a reality check as he suffered a defeat in straight sets to Tommy Paul. Despite causing a big upset against Novak Djokovic in the previous round on Tuesday, the 123rd ranked Nardi was unable to replicate his performance and lost 6-4, 6-3 to the American player.

Source: theguardian.com