U.S. women dominate Australian Open quarterfinals

Emma stays thriving in deciders ☺️

Navarro is the second player in the Open Era to make the women's #AusOpen Quarterfinals with all three-setters in the first four Rounds after Jelena Dokic in 2009! pic.twitter.com/6S6DI7cKT3

— Tennis Channel (@TennisChannel) January 20, 2025

Three U.S. players made it to the Australian Open round of 16, and now those three have made it to the quarterfinals. 3rd seed Coco Gauff, 8th seed Emma Navarro and 19th seed Madison Keys are in the final eight.

The round of 16 featured some really good competition, and also a fair share of injury. Donna Vekic, 6th seed Elena Rybakina and Veronika Kudermetova all had to have medical timeouts. Rybakina hurt her back, and when she returned to the court after the MTO, her serve was noticeably less powerful. However, this issue was soon corrected. In the meantime, Rybakina's opponent, Madison Keys, had her own serve go off for a while. And despite Rybakina's brief struggle, this was a good match, with Keys playing her best game, and prevailing, 6-3, 1-6, 6-3. 

A resurgent Belinda Bencic, returning from a maternity leave, was very impressive against Coco Gauff in the first set, but then faded, and won only three games in the last two sets. Top seed Aryna Sabalenka made quick work of rising star Mirra Andreeva (6-1, 6-2), and breakout star Eva Lys saw her run end abruptly when 2nd seed Iga Swiatek defeated her 6-0, 6-1. 

 

Navarro has needed three sets to win each of her matches, and--to be fair--she had a pretty tough draw. Her first-round match against Peyton Stearns, which she won 6-7, 7-6, 7-5, lasted three hours and 20 minutes. In the second round, she needed two hours and eleven minutes to defeat Wang Xiyu 6-3, 3-6, 6-4, 

and in the third round, it took her just over two hours to defeat Ons Jabeur 6-4, 3-6, 6-4. Finally, Navarro's round of 16 match against 9th seed Daria Kasatkina lasted two hours and 40 minutes. Navarro won that match 6-4, 5-7, 7-5. That's a lot of time to spend on the court--in the heat.

In the meantime, the top three doubles seeds are still in the draw. Siniakova/Townsend, Dabrowski/Routliffe and Hsieh/Ostapenko have all advanced to the quarterfinals. 

Here is the singles quarterfinal draw:

Aryna Sabalenka (1) v. Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova (27)
Coco Gauff (3) vs. Paula Badosa (11)
Madison Keys (19) v. Elina Svitolina (28)
Emma Navarro (8) vs. Iga Swiatek (2)