NEW YORK — Emma Navarro met her match.
The fast-rising American’s storybook run at the US Open came to an end Thursday night as Aryna Sabalenka eliminated her — 6-3, 7-6 (2) — in the semifinal at Arthur Ashe Stadium.
Sabalenka, the world’s No. 2 player, deployed a powerful first serve that approached 120 mph — about 10 mph faster on average than Navarro’s — to set a fiery tone on a chilly night in Queens.
The win clinched a return to the Open final for Sabalenka, a two-time major winner who lost in the title match to Coco Gauff last year.
Playing in her first-ever Grand Slam semifinal, the 12th-seeded Navarro did not go down easily. After dropping the first two games of the opening set, she responded with consecutive wins to tie it, 2-2, and energize a packed crowd that included Billie Jean King, Maria Sharapova, Michael Strahan, Victor Cruz and Molly Ringwald.
But the Belarusian-born Sabalenka, 26, proved to be too much, winning four of the next five games to take the first set.
Navarro, 23, took a 2-1 lead in the second set and, after falling behind 5-3, came storming back, winning three consecutive games — including breaking Sabalenka’s serve — to take a 6-5 lead.
But Sabalanka won the 12th game on serve to force a tiebreak. Sabalenka dropped the first two points of the tiebreak with an unforced error and a double fault, but she won the next seven points, ending the match with an emphatic forehand smash winner.
Sabalenka tallied eight aces, to Navarro’s one, and won 74% of her points on first serve. Sabalenka committed 34 unforced errors, compared to Navarro’s 13, but also recorded 34 winners to Navarro’s 13.
The loss ended a momentous run for Navarro, who was competing in only her eighth Grand Slam tournament. Navarro did not make it out of the first round in her first two trips to the Open or advance past the quarterfinals at her previous seven majors.
Navarro surged through the first five rounds of this Open, dropping only two sets along the way. She eliminated Gauff in three sets in the fourth round, then defeated Spain’s Paula Badosa — a former world No. 2 — in straight sets in the quarterfinals.
That win over Badosa was particularly epic, as Navarro won six consecutive games in the second set to rally back from a 5-1 deficit. The instant-classic comeback saw Navarro win her last 12 points on serve and break Badosa’s final three serves.
“Sometimes, you’re out on the court and you can kind of picture yourself playing a third set,” Navarro said Tuesday after her quarterfinal win. “When I was out there, I didn’t picture myself playing a third set.
The daughter of a billionaire businessman, Navarro was born in New York City and grew up in South Carolina. Her grandmother lives about 125 miles northeast of Flushing Meadows in Mystic, Conn., and attended Navarro’s Open matches with the athlete’s aunt and uncle.
Navarro is the latest American to find success at the Open. The U.S. has won 11 women’s singles titles at the tournament since 1998, including six by Serena Williams.
The U.S. has not, however, won a men’s singles title since 2003, when Andy Roddick claimed the crown. The winner of Taylor Fritz and Frances Tiafoe’s semifinal match on Friday night will be the first American to advance to the men’s final since Roddick in 2006.
