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Coco Gauff of the US serves against Romania's Sorana Cirstea during their women's singles match on day three of the Australian Open tennis tournament in Melbourne. Photo: AFP
Defending champion Coco Gauff seeks a third successive US Open quarter-final spot on Sunday as former runner-up Alexander Zverev attempts to exploit the huge hole left in the draw by the shock exit of four-time winner Novak Djokovic.
World number three Gauff tackles compatriot Emma Navarro, seeking to avenge the defeat she suffered at Wimbledon in July.
The 20-year-old Gauff is one of only two women to have made at least the fourth round of every Slam this season and she has been quick to write off that recent straight-sets loss to Navarro as a blip.
“I feel like that match at Wimbledon I think I mentally just literally collapsed on the court,” said Gauff.
“I was very frustrated, and she played well. That was, I think, the best tennis she played.”
Unlike the high-profile Gauff, 12th-ranked Navarro prefers to stay in the shadows. She has 100,000 followers on Instagram compared to Gauff’s 1.8 million.
“In my head, I’ll probably always be under the radar just because I don’t like social media and that kind of stuff too much,” she said.
“In my head, I’ll always just be kind of regular Emma, under-the-radar Emma, but yeah, maybe to the rest of the world I’m more on the radar now.”
Fourth-ranked Zverev, who blew a two sets lead to lose the 2020 final to Dominic Thiem, is the highest seed left in the bottom half of the draw after Djokovic suffered his earliest loss at the US Open in 18 years.
The German star leads the ATP Tour in match wins this season with 55 and his third-round victory over Tomas Martin Etcheverry was the 100th victory of his Grand Slam career.
He now takes on unseeded American Brandon Nakashima who has made the last 16 in New York for the first time.
Alexei Popyrin, the 28th-ranked Australian who shocked 24-time major winner Djokovic on Friday, has yet to make a Slam quarter-final.
He takes on flamboyant Frances Tiafoe, the 20th-ranked shot-maker who made the semi-finals in 2022 and last-eight 12 months ago.
With Djokovic and 2022 champion Carlos Alcaraz already eliminated, home fans are dreaming of the first American men’s Grand Slam champion since Andy Roddick captured the US Open in 2003.
Tiafoe is one of four American men to have made the last 16.
“Playing Frances will be quite an experience,” said Popyrin.
“There have been a few times where I have kind of lost the round before having to play Frances, and he’s always telling me, Man, why do you keep losing before we play each other!”
Elsewhere, Russian sixth seed Andrey Rublev chases a fifth US Open quarter-final against ninth-ranked Grigor Dimitrov in the first all-top 10 clash of this tournament.
Casper Ruud, the sixth seed who was runner-up to Alcaraz two years ago, faces 2023 quarter-finalist Taylor Fritz.
Women’s second seed and Australian Open champion Aryna Sabalenka, runner-up to Gauff in New York last year, meets Belgium’s Elise Mertens.
The night session on Arthur Ashe Stadium concludes with China’s Zheng Qinwen facing Donna Vekic of Croatia in a rematch of the Olympic Games final.
