In a year of career milestones, Navarro adds another at the US Open

NEW YORK — It’s been a bravura breakthrough season for Emma Navarro.

Back in January, the 23-year-old American won her first Hologic WTA Tour title in Hobart. She reached the quarterfinals at Wimbledon, her best Grand Slam result to date. Navarro already has won 41 matches, a total exceeded only by World No.1 Iga Swiatek.

US Open: Scores | Draw | Order of play

After a semifinal effort last week in Monterrey, she’s at a career-high No.12 on the PIF WTA Rankings — one of five Americans in the Top 14. Navarro also sits at No.8 on the PIF Race to WTA Finals Leaderboard, putting her in the mix for a qualifying spot in the tour’s crown jewel event.

How far has she come? Last year at this juncture she was ranked No.57. As recently as this spring, she played WTA 125 events in Spain and France.

“I feel like I’ve made a lot of progress in just my comfort level with being on these stages and playing in bigger matches and going further in tournaments,” Navarro said in Toronto. “Even just a few months ago I felt still a little bit out of my league, I guess, playing in bigger tournaments and making it to later rounds.

“Now it definitely feels a lot more comfortable.”

On Monday, the first day of action at the US Open, Navarro scored another first — her first main-draw win at the year’s final major. She was previously 0-for-2. For a player who was born in New York, the emphatic 6-1, 6-1 win over Anna Blinkova had a special significance.

It was over in 59 minutes.

“I didn’t really think about what the crowd would be like, but walking out there, the stands were full, was a pretty cool feeling because I’ve walked out on outside courts before where the stands were empty,” Navarro said in her post-match interview. “Definitely felt the love out there. Yeah, it’s cool to do it in the city that I was born in and in the country that I live in, and I feel just really proud to come from.”

Beating Blinkova featured another first — a win over the 25-year-old World No.81 after losing their only previous last year in Strasbourg. Blinkova, for the record, is now 0-7 in main-draw matches at the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center.

In virtually perfect conditions on a jam-packed Court 7, Blinkova lost the first three points, then rallied to produce what would be her best game of the entire match. She stepped in and crushed a backhand service winner to take a 1-0 lead.

Navarro won the next six games to take the set, eventually running off eight straight. In fact, Blinkova didn’t get her first service hold until 46 minutes into the match, to make it 1-2 in the second set.

As the one-sided score suggests, Navarro played a cleaner match. Her forehand was in fine form and she finished with 10 winners on that side, against a total of only nine unforced errors. Her mobility and fitness were factors, too; Navarro won 16 of 22 points in rallies of five shots or more.

What Navarro is attempting here carries a high degree of difficulty. This is her fifth tournament in as many weeks — she played the Olympics in Paris, Toronto, Cincinnati and then Monterrey. Elina Svitolina and Beatriz Haddad Maia are the only other top players to tackle that gauntlet.

“I love to just kind of stay in match mode,” she explained. “I think it’s tiring in one sense to always be in that mode where I have to play a match tomorrow, but in the other sense I think constantly putting yourself in the arena, it allows for a lot of growth. Every match is a learning experience.”

Navarro has the distinction of defeating two No.2-ranked players this year. She handled Coco Gauff in the Round of 16 at Wimbledon and, earlier then-No.2 Aryna Sabalenka at the same stage at Indian Wells.

“It’s definitely helped my confidence,” Navarro said. “I think it’s just made me realize that I can play with the best players in the world. Obviously I have to play good tennis myself and play at a high level, but being able to get wins over players like that has definitely motivated me to keep getting better and to play at that level consistently.”

Navarro will play Arantxa Rus, a 6-4, 7-6 (5) winner over Ana Bogdan in a second-round match on Wednesday. If the seeds hold, she’d face No.19 Marta Kostyuk in the third round and defending champion Gauff – for the third time this year — in the fourth round.

“No. 12, it’s knocking on the door of the top 10,” Navarro said. “It’s pretty insane to think about. When I zoom out, it does feel pretty crazy. Then I zoom back in, and the stuff that I’m working on, it’s the same stuff or similar stuff that I was working on a year ago, just maybe at a higher level.

“I think it’s cool to be able to zoom out and kind of appreciate where I’ve come from and where I’m at now and then zoom back in and just get really detail-oriented.”