Steady as she goes: Navarro’s latest milestone comes at Roland-Garros

Some might call Paris a fitting location for Navarro’s second-week breakthrough. Seeded No.22, she is a former junior Roland-Garros finalist, having finished runner-up to Leylah Fernandez in 2019, and won the junior doubles title five years ago. But her presence in the second week still carries some element of surprise, considering she only turned professional nearly two years ago.

After her standout junior career, Navarro chose to play college tennis in the U.S. at the University of Virginia, and won the national championship in 2021 – joining touring peers including Danielle Collins and Ben Shelton in that feat. Unlike her exuberant compatriots Collins and Shelton, though, Navarro goes about her business mutedly, understatedly and stoically.

But that doesn’t mean her competitive fire burns any dimmer.

“… Although I don't show a lot of emotion, I'm always giving it 110 per cent,” she said at the Australian Open, where she reached the third round. “It means the world to me. I'm going to always fight as hard as I can until the last point. Even if I'm not fist-pumping or doing whatever, it doesn't mean it matters any less to me. I put my all into this. 

“Results and rankings don't come easily, although … it looks like I just showed up in the rankings, but I've put a lot of work in over the years and so has the team that I have around me.”

Ranked No.149 at the start of last season, Navarro credits the soaring moves she’s made in the last year with a “mindset shift,” namely recognising that proactivity goes a long way on the WTA tour.

“When I was younger, I played in a way where I wanted to work myself into points and work myself into matches, and just react to what my opponent was doing,” she said. “But at this level, there's no time for that, and there's not an opportunity for that. You are either striking or you're getting struck. I'd rather do the former.”

But against Keys, who won Strasbourg ahead of Roland-Garros and had an argument for being the third-most in-form woman on clay this spring behind Iga Swiatek and Aryna Sabalenka, Navarro had to do a lot of the latter, too. Keys hit 40 winners (Navarro hit 30, to just 18 unforced errors), but was kept guessing by the combination of shots from her younger compatriot’s racquet.

Navarro took balls on the rise, but defended when she needed to. She opened the court with deft drop shots, smartly exposing any struggles Keys had with her movement, but stepped in and hit through her groundstrokes to the corners, too. It was a thinking woman's match, if you will. 

“I think that one of the things I love about playing is that I get to challenge myself every single week,” Navarro said in Indian Wells, where she reached the quarter-finals. “So playing an opponent like that on that stage is the same challenge as improving my forehand or improving my backhand. It's one of the things that keeps me invested in playing, and it makes things interesting and pushes me to be a better player.”

Though she hasn’t lost a set at Roland-Garros thus far (she came close against Keys, who served for the opener twice), 13 of Navarro’s 30-plus wins this year have come in three sets, which puts her among the tour’s best. One of those was against her next Roland-Garros opponent, world No.2 Sabalenka at Indian Wells, Navarro’s best-ever win by ranking.

Although Sabalenka has only lost to Grand Slam champions this clay-court season, there’s no reason for Navarro to think she can’t repeat the feat. 

“I always step on the court believing that I have a chance to win, and it's always my priority to just put my best foot forward. If a win comes from that, then that's awesome,” she said.

“It’s definitely cool to be able to play an opponent like that and feel like I can hang and I can win.”