After Sonay Kartal’s upset of 4th placed Mirra Andreeva, Emma Navarro produced the second shock of day 6 on the WTA 1000 China open with a 3-set victory over Iga Swiateek, amazing the top seeds, 6-4 4-6 6-0, in 2 hours 30 minutes.
I always try to go on the field with goals that are feasible and that are under my control, regardless of what my opponent does, and, I think, I did that today, so that is definitely something I will walk with happy. I think I played with stability and a calmness, and, I think, just a sense of control during the game. Emma Navarro
In addition, the American scored her first top 10 victory since January to reach the quarterfinals in Beijing, where she will meet her countryman Jessica Pegula, who also had to pass the Marta Kostuyk of Ukraine on Wednesday.
“I think playing defense is something that I really enjoy playing and having my opponent make a shot.” Navarro said afterwards. “If I miss those recordings on the run or the Stab slices, it really disturbs me. I like to make it and let her hit another ball and perform a shot from a heavy position.”
Navarro’s strategy had its limits against Swiatek.
“I think she is doing a very good job to get in, and also returns and makes you feel a lot of pressure,” Navarro added. “I think it is easy to get a bit, a bit and out of hand when that happens.”
In the biggest upset of the China Open from 2025, Navarro prevailed on Swiatek for the majority of their match, with the help of controlled aggression and diversity of Tempo to bring her opponent to the attention, and to take a set and a break lead before the 24-year-old pole could get back into the game.
With the competition on a set per piece, the former world no.
Navarro had only won 5 games in her 2 earlier meetings with Swiatek, but on this occasion she received a bold approach and the court acted to return, effectively robbed the pole of her dominance.
It did huge rewards when the 6-way Grand Slam champion looked rushed and restless when she dropped in a defeat that is a huge blow to her hope of catching Aryna Sabalenka at the top of the WTA rangers.
World No. 2 Iga Swiatek had no answers to the controlled, aggressive game of Emma Navarro and became in the 3rd set in Beijing
© Shi Tang/Getty Images
In all respects it was a bad performance of Swiateek, who made no fewer than 70 casual mistakes for her 35 winners, which marked one of the highest error distances of her career, while Navarro’s precise 21 miscues for her 12 winners indicated the remarkable consistency of the American.
“I was not injured. I just played badly today,” Swiatek admitted later. “I managed to work on it in the second set. Then, probably, I came back in the third place the mistakes I made from the start of the game, a bit.
“I don’t really know, I don’t know, repair the photos that I played wrong or something. I knew a bit what I am doing wrong. I don’t know, I was stuck to do it wrong, instead of actually resolving it.”
After dropping the second set, the 24-year-old Navarro showed a serious solution to give Swiateek a rare bagel in the decision-maker to score her 4th career top 3 victory, and her first since the 2024 US Open.
Her arrival in the quarterfinals is the furthest she has demanded during a WTA 1000 tournament, or higher, since the Australian Open earlier this year.
Swiatek has been one of the most in-shaped players of the second half of the season, rushed to her 6th Grand Slam victory in Wimbledon and achieved a win of 6 games in the last 16 in Beijing, after she had lifted her 3rd title of the year in Seoul.
De Paal only lost 3 matches to Navarro in their last meeting earlier this year in the quarterfinals of Melbourne, and Navarro has since largely been struggling on the field and stopped from the top 10 of a career-high ranking of no. 8.
Emma Navarro is one of the 4 Americans who reached the quarterfinals in Beijing after he disrupted Iga Swiatek in the 4th round on Wednesday
© Lalta Zhang/Getty Images
The top seeds opened the game with an early break, but the American came back and broke twice to win the set, while Swiatek struggled to find the defense half, often send her shots for a long time and to pick up casual mistakes, a problem that teased her throughout the game.
The struggles of the World No 2 became increasingly clear when she fell into an abundance of errors, and although she stabiled herself enough to take the second set, she had no answer in the decision maker, collapsed to a shocking bagel and bending the tournament she had caught in 2023.
Asked to think about her loss, Swiatek admitted that her emotions have the upper hand, the better of her,
“Yes, I was certainly a bit more nervous because of that, and maybe, maybe, too many emotions,” she said. “I will try to keep it cooler next time, so I have more room in my head to solve problem.
“To be honest, I didn’t feel that something was working. That’s why I got more and more nervous.”
The Service Statistics emphasize the struggles of Swiatek, with its first -class percentage at 62%, and winning 63% of those points, but they only succeeded 34% on the second portions.
Navarro performed her by landing 64% of her first portions and winning 71% of those points, while converting 42% of her second service opportunities.
SWIATEK saved 60% of the breaking points, but won only 54% of its service games, while Navarro saved 57% of the breaking points and had 77% of its service games.
With return, Navarro again gave the lead, and won 36% of the first-service return points and 66% of the second servinous points, compared to 29% and 58% of the pole respectively, while the defensive firmness of the American and the ability to vary the length of the last-session, culminated Swiatek’s fierce-sets in a depth-kiatekte-Setekte-Setkeks-kiateks-kiateks-kiateks-kiateks-kiateks-length Seed did not put a game.
Navarro said she derived confidence from her own performance in the game.
“I always try to go on the field with goals that are feasible, and who have my control, regardless of what my opponent does, and, I think, I did that today, so that is definitely something I will walk away with,” she said. “I think I played with a steady and a tranquility, and, I think, just a sense of control during the game.”
It was an impressive upset victory for Emma Navarro, who had only gathered 5 games in her 2 earlier meetings with Iga Swiatek
Navarro’s Run comes as part of a strong show by American players in Beijing, while she joins Coco Gauff, Pegula and Amanda Anisimova in the last 8, making it the first time since the start of the tournament in 2004 that 4 Americans have reached the quarter.
This also marks the first time that 4 Americans have reached the quarterfinals on a Tier 1/WTA-1000 event outside North America since Tokyo in 2003.
In the meantime, Swiatek will try to regroup and sharpen her game while entering the next WTA 1000 event in Wuhan.
This season, the post has a solid 59-14 win-loss-record with 3 titles that are already secured, and her status as 2nd seed should eliminate her confidence, but with the presence of title defender Sabalenka, Coco Gauff, Amanda Anisimova and several other top candidates in the trek, the road promises to be slightly different.
“Unfortunately I think the Asian swing is the most difficult, because you feel that the season will end quickly, but you still have to push,” Swiatek told Navarro prior to her defeat. “For me, I don’t know yet what my career will look like in a few years. Maybe I will have to choose some tournaments and skip them, even if they are mandatory.
“Yes, just like WTA with all these mandatory rules, they have made this pretty crazy for us. I don’t think a top player can achieve this, for example, playing the six 500 tournaments. It is simply impossible to squeeze it into the schedule.
“I think we should be smart at it, not really care about the rules and just think what is healthy for us. Yes, it’s hard.
“The only thing I can do now, when I decided that I was going to play all these mandatory tournaments, is to just take care of my body, to take care of the recovery. I also have a good team around me that helps me with that. I am experienced enough to know what to do. So I am physically good.
“There are many injuries. I think it’s because the season is too long and too intense.”
Several players have chosen to take a break and Sabalenka has skipped this week’s event in Beijing, with reference to an injury after her US Open -victory last month.
It is still to be considered whether they influence her participation in Wuhan next week due to the error -treated performance.
The World No 2 has never participated in the Wuhan Open and will have to familiarize itself with the location and playing surfaces.
“I’ve never been there. I have no idea what the site looks like and what the courts are like. It is, I think, just to see a new place,” she said. “It is certainly good that the tournament is shorter, because regardless of whether you win, regardless of whether you lose, you can just continue and do your work, that is, a little earlier, just being in a kind of rhythm.
“Yes, I will just do my best, try to work on this stuff at the Practice Court and be ready for the first game.”
In the night session, the 5th Seed Jessica Pegula Marta Kostyuk, the 23rd seed, defeated 3 sets in their 4th round meeting that ended after midnight in Beijing
© Lalta Zhang/Getty Images
In the meantime, Navarro is then opposed to Pegula, who also needed 3 sets to beat the 23rd seed Kostyuk in the last game of the day, to score the 4th victory of the American in 5 career meetings during the Tour against the Ukrainian.
In a fight that lasted well after the midnight, the 5th placed Pegula came within 2 victory points in the second set, but eventually needed 3 to pass Kostyuk in a 4th round roller coaster ride that lasted 2 hours and 18 minutes.
While Pegula will reach her 12th career WTA 1000 semi -final, Navarro will shoot for her 2nd.
Pegula has a 2-0 head-to-head record against her countryman, including a 3-set victory in Bad Homburg on grass earlier in the season.
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