FACING a set down and not playing at her best, American talent Emma Navarro managed to find her best form in a scintillating last two sets to storm past Poland’s Magdalena Frech at the WTA 500 event in Monterrey. Navarro lost the first set in a tiebreaker, but put the foot down in the last two sets to lose just two games in that time.

Frech was matching it with her higher ranked opponent through the first set, winning 67 and 47 per cent of her first and second serve points, handing the American with a 61 and 44 per cent success rate respectively. Both players broke twice, but it was not until Frech managed to win a few crucial points in the tiebreaker before she could go a set up.

Failing to get on top early, Navarro reassessed and produced one of the most dominant sets. She won 15 of 22 points on serve, but critically 13 of 19 on return, both working out at 68 per cent. Essentially, Navarro won 14 points for the set, and though she still created four break points, could not capitalise on any of them. The American on the other hand had five break point chances, taking three to win it to love.

While Frech was able to regain some momentum back on serve in the decider – winning 69 per cent of her first serve points – it was hard to stop a now confident Navarro. The second seed won 68 and 50 per cent of her first and second serve points, though ran at an 86 per cent clip with only four faults for the decider.

She broke twice and saved her only break point, making it five breaks from nine chances in the last two sets and made quite the turnaround from a 6-7 deficit to win the last two sets 6-0 6-2 and book her spot in the final four.

The highest ranked player left in the draw, Navarro who is now through to the semi-finals will have a quick turnaround between Monterrey and her home Grand Slam which kicks off on Monday. Her semi-final will take place overnight AEST, with the final overnight on Saturday, leaving around 48 hours to prepare for her opening round match at Flushing Meadows should she make the final.

In the earlier quarter finals, third seed Ekaterina Alexandrova made it through thanks to a tight 7-5 7-6 victory over China’s Yue Yuan, while Lulu Sun ended the run of Russian Erika Andreeva, 6-4 6-3.

Seeded 13th at the US Open, Nacarro kick-starts her campaign against Russian Anna Blinkova, with a potential Round of 16 encounter against third seed Coco Gauff on the cards.