Gauff was shaky from the start while playing the final match of another rain-soaked day under the roof on Wimbledon’s premier show court. She had beaten Navarro, 6-3, 6-1, in January and was plenty familiar with her tennis before then, having known Navarro since they were children. Gauff praised her all-court game heading into the match, but Navarro beat her by cleaving aggressively to the baseline to sap any time Gauff might have had to think her way out of their rallies. She engaged the 2023 U.S. Open champion in long, cross-court battles, most of which were on the forehand side.
It worked — Gauff had 16 unforced forehand errors and grew irate when she couldn’t knock Navarro off her rhythm. It didn’t help that Navarro put Gauff under pressure from the start of every point with attacking returns.
“It was kind of a cat-and-mouse, who’s going to change the pattern first,” Navarro said. “I love matches like that where it feels like it’s not just a hitting or striking competition, [where] there’s strategy involved. It feels like a chess match or something. That was really enjoyable for me.”
Not every 23-year-old looks as breezy as Navarro did on Centre Court playing a Grand Slam champion. But she had been in that position before; she knocked out big-hitting four-time Grand Slam champion Naomi Osaka on the same stage in the second round Wednesday.
“Maybe just, like, the accumulation of a lot more experiences on stages like that and in stadiums like that have allowed me to be more comfortable playing in that type of environment,” Navarro said. “Kind of just rode the wave of that comfort, I guess.”
Navarro’s poise and well-timed hitting frustrated Gauff so much that she repeatedly turned to her coaching box to ask for help. Gauff said her frustration with her game plan was partly because she and her coaches, Brad Gilbert and Jean-Christophe Faurel, weren’t as in sync as they should have been. But she took responsibility.
“I don’t always ask for advice [from my coaches]. Today was one of those rare moments where I felt I didn’t have solutions,” Gauff said. “… Today, mentally, there was a lot going on. I felt like I wanted more direction from the box. … It’s no one’s blame except myself. I’m the player out there. I have to make decisions for myself on the court.”
The 20-year-old’s loss means just two of the top 10 seeds on the women’s side remain in the draw going into Monday, when the fourth round is set to be completed: No. 4 Elena Rybakina, the 2022 Wimbledon champion, and No. 7 Jasmine Paolini, last month’s surprise French Open finalist. Paolini advanced earlier Sunday when No. 12 Madison Keys retired at 6-3, 6-7 (8-6), 5-5. Top-seeded Iga Swiatek was shocked by unseeded Yulia Putintseva on Saturday, and No. 3 seed Aryna Sabalenka withdrew ahead of her first-round match with a shoulder injury.
Navarro will face Paolini on Tuesday in her first Grand Slam quarterfinal during just her eighth appearance at a major. She is one of two former University of Virginia standouts left in the draw — 2022 Australian Open finalist Danielle Collins, the No. 11 seed, plays No. 31 Barbora Krejcikova in a fourth-round match Monday.
The pair text each other after wins, and Navarro said she drew inspiration after watching Collins come back from a 0-4 deficit in the first set of her third-round match Saturday.
“I passed by her in the rain delay, and she was scarfing down rice and sweet potatoes, trying to carb up. Then I kind of followed suit today — I was carbing up before my match,” Navarro said, smiling. “… It’s pretty cool to have somebody else out on tour that you have that connection with, feel like you’re in each other’s corner, no matter what.”
Gauff exits the singles tournament lamenting the missed opportunity to win her second Grand Slam title. Wimbledon remains the only major where she hasn’t reached the quarterfinals.
She said the fact that the draw was so open after Swiatek’s exit wasn’t on her mind. As a player who found stardom on tour as a 15-year-old at Wimbledon, Gauff said she doesn’t underestimate any opponent.
“It means nothing — especially on my side of the draw, even though the players may not be as known, but they’re so talented,” Gauff said. “I think that’s something that people, fans of the game, are a little bit disrespectful [of] when it comes to other players on tour.”
Navarro, in her own way, feels the same. The 2021 NCAA singles champion tries to approach her matches as if she were still in college, where players spend most of the season playing one match per week — no rounds of a tournament, no opportunity to build confidence win by win or to work your way into form. It’s just you and the opponent across the net.
From that perspective, a fourth-round match on Centre Court against a Grand Slam champion is no more or less important than any other.
“I’m believing that this is possible as it’s happening. I’m starting to think: ‘Why not me? Why not? Why can’t I make a quarterfinal run? Why can’t I go deep in Grand Slams?’” Navarro said. “I think I’m coming into that belief as we speak.”