By Chris Oddo | @TheFanChild | Monday 20 January 2025
After her third round win over Tunisia’s Ons Jabeur, Emma Navarro spoke in court about grueling bike sessions with her father, Ben Navarro, and mentioned the term bike and cry. “We coined a term ‘biking and crying’ because we’d spend six hours, we’d all have tears in our eyes and we’d 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 won her fourth consecutive victory in three sets by defeating the Russian Daria Kasatkina6-4, 5-7, 7-5. Navarro dropped three match points in the second set but had the mental fortitude to stick with the plan and finish off the No. 9 in a heated decision.
The 23-year-old, who has now won seven straight deciding sets at majors, and eight of nine overall, credits mental toughness for her run in Melbourne. She has won a quarterfinal matchup with the no.2-seeded Iga Swiatek (more on that on the site) the hard way.
“I feel like it’s more of a test of mental will than anything,” Navarro said. “I’ve 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 games.”
Navarro says she has yet to play her best tennis at this Australian Open. Commendable, then, that she reached her first quarter-final at the Australian Open without her A-game.
“I feel like it’s more mental toughness than anything,” she said. “I feel like I didn’t play my best. Today was definitely the best match I’ve played. I feel like every game I’ve gotten a little bit better.”
Navarro is 10-2 lifetime in the three-man contest, and 28-15 overall. Her fitness, and her commitment to development in that regard, is a big reason she has now reached at least the quarterfinals in her last three Grand Slam appearances.
In the quarterfinals, she will be tested by a phenomenon that has reached the quarterfinals in the opposite direction. Five-time Slam champion Swiatek has lost just 11 games in four rounds. This is far less than the 61 Navarro has given. The American knows she’ll have to call it all and then some to deal with Swiatek’s firepower.
She lost 6-0, 6-2 to the Pole in their only previous meeting, in an 80K challenger in 2018.
“When I look back on my tennis career, I feel like there haven’t been many times where I’ve been completely blown away by the court, and I’ve definitely been blown away by the court playing it,” Navarro admitted. “I think maybe at the time she was ranked 200 or something. We played at my club in Charleston. I said, “Wow, this girl is really good.”
With confidence high, in her game and in her fitness, Navarro believes it will be different this time.
“The circumstances are definitely different now. I feel like I’m pretty good too. You know, I’m ready for a good challenge.”
