Gauff holds court, sets last 16 clash with Navarro

The only top-5 player remaining in the lower half of the women’s singles draw held up her end of the bargain once again on Day 5 at Wimbledon.

Coco Gauff, seeded No 2, raced past British qualifier Sonay Kartal 6-4, 6-0 to set a round of 16 clash with fellow American Emma Navarro, the No 19 seed.

Gauff won the pair’s only previous meeting in Auckland (6-3, 6-1), but Navarro has been a revelation on tour in 2024, rising into the top-20 for the first time. Here at Wimbledon the former NCAA champion at the University of Virginia raised eyebrows with a clinical takedown of four-time Grand Slam champion Naomi Osaka in the second round, before defeating Russia’s Diana Shnaider in the third round.

“She’s obviously a great player, she’s had a great tournament,” Gauff said. “It’s going to be a tough match, she’s not an easy opponent to play, but I think if I play good tennis, hopefully it will go my way.”

Against Kartal, Gauff raced away with the final eight games of the match on No.1 Court, breaking up what started as a nervy encounter, improving to 11-4 lifetime at Wimbledon and reaching the round of 16 for the third time.

“She does a good job of mixing it up with variety, so you never really feel settled,” Gauff said of her opponent. “I was just trying to make less mistakes. I felt like I was going for the right shots, I was just missing [early in the match], and I felt like I eventually found it and was able to do well.”

Gauff, who reached the round of 16 as a 15-year-old qualifier, has never been past the fourth round at SW19.

The 20-year-old American beat Caroline Dolehide (6-1, 6-2) and Romanian qualifier Anca Todoni (6-2, 6-1) earlier in the tournament.

In the previous rounds of The Championships, Kartal, ranked No 298, defeated Romanian Sorana Cirstea, the No 29 seed (3-6, 6-2, 6-0) and Frenchwoman Clara Burel (6-3, 5-7, 6-3).

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London (Grand Slam), other third-round results (All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club, grass, GBP 50.000.000, most recent results first):

• Harriet Dart vs. Xinyu Wang
• Ons Jabeur vs. Elina Svitolina
• Anna Kalinskaya vs. Liudmila Samsonova
• Elena Rybakina vs. Caroline Wozniacki
• Barbora Krejcikova vs. Jessica Bouzas Maneiro
• Danielle Collins vs. Beatriz Haddad Maia
• Bernarda Pera vs. Jelena Ostapenko
• Iga Swiatek vs. Yulia Putintseva
• Emma Raducanu vs. Maria Sakkari: friday
• Dayana Yastremska vs. Donna Vekic
• Madison Keys (12) beat Marta Kostyuk (18): 6-4, 6-3
• Emma Navarro beat Diana Shnaider: 2-6, 6-3, 6-4
• Paula Badosa beat Daria Kasatkina (14): 7-6 (6), 4-6, 6-4
• Jasmine Paolini (7) beat Bianca Andreescu: 7-6 (4), 6-1
• Lulu Sun (Q) beat Lin Zhu: 7-6 (4), 7-6 (6)