By Chris Oddo | @TheFanChild | Monday January 20, 2025
After her third round win over Tunisia’s Ons Jabeur, Emma Navarro talked on court about grueling bike sessions with her father, Ben Navarro, and cited the term biking and crying. “We made up a term ‘biking and crying’ because we’d be six hours in, we’d all have tears in our eyes and just be exhausted trying to pedal up a hill,” Navarro said. “I learned a lot of toughness growing up.”
That toughness is paying dividends for the American in Melbourne. On Monday night she claimed her fourth consecutive victory in three sets defeating Russia’s Daria Kasatkina, 6-4, 5-7, 7-5. Navarro squandered three match points in the second set, but had the mental toughness to stick with the plan and finish off the No.9 seed in a heated decider.
The 23-year-old, who has now won seven consecutive deciding sets at the majors, and eight of nine overall, credits mental toughness for her run in Melbourne. She has earned a quarterfinal showdown with No.2-seeded Iga Swiatek (more on that down the page) the hard way.
“I feel like it’s more of a test of mental will than anything,” Navarro said. “I have worked really hard on my fitness to be able to go three sets and play over two hours, three hours, whatever it takes. I feel like my fitness has definitely paid off here in my first four matches.”
Navarro says she has yet to play her best tennis at this Australian open. Commendable, then, to have reached her first quarterfinal at the Australian open without her A game.
Experiece is typically a big aid when it comes to winning three-setters at the majors, but Navarro, playing in her ninth main draw at the Slams, doesn’t have a ton. She’s relying on a toughness that seems to be planted in her DNA.
“I feel like it’s more mental toughness than anything,” she said. “I feel like I haven’t been playing my best. Today was definitely the best match I have played. I feel like every match I have been getting a little bit better.”
Navarro is 10-2 lifetime in three-setters at the majors, and 28-15 overall. Her fitness, and her commitment to development in that regard, is a big reason that she has now reached at least the quarterfinals in her last three Grand Slam appearances.
In the quarterfinals she’ll be tested by a phenom that has reached the quarterfinals the opposite way. Five-time Slam champion Swiatek has dropped just 11 games through four rounds. That’s a lot less than the 61 Navarro has yielded. The American knows she’ll have to summon everything and then some to deal with Swiatek’s firepower.
She lost 6-0, 6-2 to the Pole in their only previous meeting, at an 80K challenger in 2018.
“When I look back at my tennis career, I feel like there were not too many times when I was totally blown off the court, and I definitely was kind of blown off the court playing her,” Navarro admitted. “I think maybe at the time she was ranked 200 or something. We played at my home club in Charleston. I was, like, ‘Wow, this girl is pretty good.’
Riding high on confidence, in her game and in her fitness, Navarro believes it will be different this time.
“Circumstances are definitely different now. I feel like I’m pretty good, too. You know, I’m ready for a good challenge.”
