{"id":41648,"date":"2025-07-05T20:53:09","date_gmt":"2025-07-05T20:53:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/41648\/"},"modified":"2025-07-05T20:53:09","modified_gmt":"2025-07-05T20:53:09","slug":"wimbledon-emma-navarro-beats-defending-champion-krejcikova","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/41648\/","title":{"rendered":"Wimbledon: Emma Navarro beats defending champion Krejcikova"},"content":{"rendered":"

LONDON (AP) \u2014 Emma Navarro<\/a> describes herself as \u201cstubborn\u201d and her tennis as \u201cscrappy.\u201d The American\u2019s attitude and game both were in just the right places at Wimbledon<\/a> on Saturday, when she pulled off another Grand Slam victory over a defending champion by eliminating Barbora Krejcikova<\/a> 2-6, 6-3, 6-4.<\/p>\n

Sending an ill and dizzy Krejcikova home in the third round, the 10th-seeded Navarro extended a recent run of one-and-done winners at the All England Club and assured the grass-court major of yet another first-time women\u2019s champion.<\/p>\n

\u201cSomething I take a lot of pride in is being tough and fighting till the last point, no matter what the circumstances are. It\u2019s something I always try to do,\u201d said Navarro, who was born in New York, grew up in South Carolina and won the 2021 NCAA championship for the University of Virginia. \u201cI could never live with myself if I ever gave up. It\u2019s just not in my nature. I don\u2019t think it\u2019s in any of my family members\u2019 nature to ever give up on anything. I guess we\u2019re a stubborn bunch.\u201d<\/p>\n

Krejcikova faded in the third set, getting her blood pressure checked at the changeover after Navarro broke her to lead 3-2 at No. 1 Court. Krejcikova ate a banana and drank liquids during the medical timeout, while Navarro walked to her guest box and spoke to her coach during the break in action.<\/p>\n

When play resumed, Krejcikova showed clear signs of being in distress, often leaning over and placing her hands on her knees between points.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was actually feeling worse and worse,\u201d said Krejcikova, who was seeded 17th but now will tumble out of the top 70 in the WTA rankings. \u201cIt\u2019s very sad for me and very unfortunate.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"Barbora<\/p>\n

Barbora Krejcikova of Czech Republic reacts during her women\u2019s singles third round match against Emma Navarro of the U.S. at the Wimbledon Tennis Championships in London, Saturday, July 5, 2025.(AP Photo\/Alastair Grant)<\/p>\n

Barbora Krejcikova of Czech Republic reacts during her women\u2019s singles third round match against Emma Navarro of the U.S. at the Wimbledon Tennis Championships in London, Saturday, July 5, 2025.(AP Photo\/Alastair Grant)<\/p>\n

Read More<\/p>\n

This is hardly Navarro\u2019s first big win on a big stage. Last year, she eliminated Coco Gauff at Wimbledon<\/a> to reach her first major quarterfinal. Then, in a rematch a couple of months later, Navarro won again at the U.S. Open \u2014 where Gauff was the 2023 champion \u2014 en route to her debut in a Slam semifinal.<\/p>\n

Whoever ends up winning the Wimbledon women\u2019s title on July 12 will be the ninth champion in the past nine editions of the grass-court Grand Slam tournament. Serena Williams was the last repeat champ in 2016.<\/p>\n

The trophy-takers since then have been Garbi\u00f1e Muguruza in 2017, Angelique Kerber in 2018, Simona Halep in 2019, Ash Barty in 2021 \u2014 all of whom are now retired \u2014 Elena Rybakina in 2022, Marketa Vondrousova in 2023 and then Krejcikova (the tournament was canceled in 2020 because of COVID-19).<\/p>\n

Rybakina lost Saturday; Vondrousova exited in the second round.<\/p>\n

Against Krejcikova, Navarro was down a set and a break at 2-1 in the second before turning things around.<\/p>\n

\u201cI kind of regrouped a little, tried to slow things down a bit from my side and make her look at some different shots,\u201d said Navarro, 24, who will meet No. 7 Mirra Andreeva, an 18-year-old Russian, on Monday for a quarterfinal berth. \u201cKind of just try to make her as uncomfortable as I could.\u201d <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"Emma<\/p>\n

Emma Navarro of the U.S. returns to Barbora Krejcikova of Czech Republic during their women\u2019s singles third round match at the Wimbledon Tennis Championships in London, Saturday, July 5, 2025.(AP Photo\/Alastair Grant)<\/p>\n

Emma Navarro of the U.S. returns to Barbora Krejcikova of Czech Republic during their women\u2019s singles third round match at the Wimbledon Tennis Championships in London, Saturday, July 5, 2025.(AP Photo\/Alastair Grant)<\/p>\n

Read More<\/p>\n

Most points were decided by what Krejcikova did. That\u2019s how she ended up with 34 winners \u2014 21 more than Navarro \u2014 and 53 unforced errors. Remarkably, Navarro finished with just 11 unforced errors.<\/p>\n

Last year\u2019s triumph was the second at a major tournament for Krejcikova, who also won the 2021 French Open.<\/p>\n

It has been a fortnight filled with surprises, and Navarro is one of four top-10 seeds left in the women\u2019s bracket. The others are No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka, who won her third-round match Friday against Emma Raducanu, Andreeva and No. 8 Iga Swiatek, a 6-2, 6-3 winner against Danielle Collins on Saturday.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy slice is coming along pretty nicely. I\u2019m able to use that to my advantage,\u201d Navarro said. \u201cPlayed scrappy at times. Played tough. Hit some good groundstrokes, as well. I feel pretty good about where I\u2019m at.\u201d<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

More AP tennis: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/tennis<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LONDON (AP) \u2014 Emma Navarro describes herself as \u201cstubborn\u201d and her tennis as \u201cscrappy.\u201d The American\u2019s attitude and…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":41649,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[32856,2477,11054,2210,32352,2766,15187,10115,32859,57,22298,2481,22879,32857,5224,32855,3036,24116,62,1464,67,132,68,18321,906,32858,2071,14374,107],"class_list":{"0":"post-41648","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-angelique-kerber","9":"tag-aryna-sabalenka","10":"tag-barbora-krejcikova","11":"tag-coco-gauff","12":"tag-danielle-rose-collins","13":"tag-elena-rybakina","14":"tag-emma-navarro","15":"tag-emma-raducanu","16":"tag-garbine-muguruza","17":"tag-general-news","18":"tag-iga-swiatek","19":"tag-marketa-vondrousova","20":"tag-mirra-andreeva","21":"tag-sc-state-wire","22":"tag-serena-williams","23":"tag-simona-halep","24":"tag-south-carolina","25":"tag-south-carolina-gamecocks","26":"tag-sports","27":"tag-tennis","28":"tag-united-states","29":"tag-unitedstates","30":"tag-us","31":"tag-va-state-wire","32":"tag-virginia","33":"tag-virginia-cavaliers","34":"tag-wimbledon","35":"tag-wimbledon-championships","36":"tag-world-news"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41648","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41648"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41648\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/41649"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41648"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41648"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41648"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}