Osaka out, as Navarro enjoys a notable victory

LONDON — To be sure, Emma Navarro's tennis was clean as she defeated Naomi Osaka at Wimbledon on Wednesday: just five unforced errors compared to 16 winners; zero break points faced; a 4-for-4 success rate at the net.

What else helped Navarro reach the third round at the All England Club for the first time by eliminating Osaka — a four-time major champion and former No 1 — 6-4, 6-1 in under an hour at Centre Court? Little reminders the 23-year-old American types into her cellphone's notes app before each match.

"It's an atmosphere that could easily overwhelm me, or overwhelm any player, and I spent a good amount of time preparing myself mentally for the emotions and the nerves I was going to feel. Then, once I got out there, I just felt really at home," said Navarro, who won the 2021 NCAA singles title for the University of Virginia and is seeded 19th at the grass-court Grand Slam tournament.

"In the notes, I told myself to make the court my home and to not be afraid to stay out there for as long as it takes," Navarro said. "I was able to do that today, and it's pretty cool to come out on the other end of an experience when you're not sure how its going to go."

It turns out she didn't need to worry.

Osaka has never been at her best on grass or clay — all of her Grand Slam trophies have come on hard courts at the US and Australian Opens — and her victory Monday was her first at Wimbledon since 2018. She last played at the tournament in 2019.

"Even though, in the beginning, it was kind of like we were trading games, I don't know why, (but) I didn't feel fully confident in myself. I didn't feel like I was playing that well," said Osaka, who returned to the tour in January after taking 15 months off to become a mother. "I guess those doubts started trickling in a lot (and) into my game."

Navarro, who grew up in South Carolina, has been rising up the rankings quickly. She went from No 143 at the end of 2022, to No 38 at the end of last year. This week, she's No 17.

She did not make it past the second round in each of her first four Slam appearances, but started this season by reaching the third round of the Australian Open, then the fourth round at the French Open, and can now get that far at Wimbledon with a win on Friday against Diana Shnaider, a 20-year-old from Russia who played college tennis at North Carolina State.

There are going to be more key thoughts typed out by Navarro before that match.

"I'll just write some bullet points. There are some things that stay constant, that I always write, and then there are other things that are specific to a certain day or a certain match," she said. "It's always mental cues, not so much tactical."

The habit began as a teenager in 2019, after a straight-set loss during a junior event in Milan, Italy, less than two weeks before the start of that year's French Open juniors.

Navarro said she was so disappointed — "I had played so tight and so scared to lose" — that she sat cross-legged on a patch of grass with her coach for one-and-a-half hours, stewing over the result and picking blades grass out of the ground until all that was left was dirt.

"I said to myself, 'I never want to feel like this again. Unprepared mentally'. Going into the French Open that year, I was really nervous," she recalled, "and I just felt like I needed to get my thoughts down."

It worked out pretty well in Paris: Navarro made it all the way to the junior final, defeating China's Zheng Qinwen — this year's Australian Open runner-up — along the way, before eventually losing to Leylah Fernandez, the 2021 US Open runner-up.

Elsewhere, China's Zhu Lin beat 25th seeded Russian Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 6-4, 6-3 on Wednesday.

Zhu hit 20 winners and made just seven unforced errors, compared to Pavlyuchenkova's 31.

"I played a very relaxed game overall," Zhu said in a post-match interview. "One thing I did well was not to confront her head-on, but to use her strength to hit different placements and make her run more. I was also very smart in the serve, making it difficult for her to hit powerful returns."

Zhu will next face New Zealand's Sun Lulu, who has already claimed one Chinese scalp this week, defeating China's world No 8 Zheng on Tuesday.

Sinner, Alcaraz move on

In the men's event, title rivals Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz reached the Wimbledon third round.

Australian Open champion Sinner defeated Italian Davis Cup teammate Matteo Berrettini 7-6 (3),7-6 (4), 2-6, 7-6 (4) in a duel that lasted 3 hours and 42 minutes.

"It's very tough we had to face each other in the second round," said 2023 semifinalist Sinner, who will take on Miomir Kecmanovic for a place in the last 16.

Alcaraz defeated Australia's world No 69 Aleksandar Vukic 7-6 (5), 6-2,6-2 on the back of 42 winners.

Alcaraz next faces fellow crowd-pleaser, American Frances Tiafoe.

"I'm going for him," said Alcaraz,

"I'm ready to play a really high level of tennis and, hopefully, I can take him."

Agencies