Australian Open Day 5: Navarro embracing the spotlight; Swiatek in action

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As a freshly minted Top 10 player, Emma Navarro

knew there would be a target on her back in 2025 -- she just didn’t know how big it would be.

Navarro had lost two of three matches coming into Tuesday’s first-round match against fellow American Peyton Stearns

-- and this one was epic. In the end, Navarro found a way to win 6-7(5), 7-6(5), 7-5. It took 3 hours and 20 minutes, the longest match of Navarro’s career.

“She had a lot of moments there where she could have maybe closed it out or run away with it,” Navarro, the No.8 seed at this Australian Open, said afterward. “I just tried to stay really tough.”

Before the tournament, the 23-year-old seemed to see this coming.

“I’m in a new place that brings a little bit of pressure,” Navarro told wtatennis.com. “Being Top 10 and playing a lot of players who don’t have that pressure -- they have nothing to lose. So it’s a different position to be in, but I’m working really hard to manage that.”

Goals for 2025? Navarro said she would try not to play as many matches; last year’s total of 78 was physically and mentally taxing. She’d like to take the next step and win a WTA Tour 500 title and push further in the Grand Slams.

Last March, when she defeated World No.2 Aryna Sabalenka

in three sets at Indian Wells, her confidence soared. In retrospect, this might have been the match that lit the fire.

Australian Open: Scores | Schedule | Draws

“Huge,” Navarro said. “Playing on a stage like that, against a player like that … being able to come out on top was definitely a moment that felt a little bit unreal. It’s not my nature to be comfortable on a stage like that, in the spotlight, but the more I do it the more comfortable I get with it. And that match, for sure, was a step in the right direction.”

Last year, Navarro was a revelation, jumping 30 spots in the PIF WTA Rankings to No.8. She won 54 matches -- only No.1 Sabalenka and No.2 Iga Swiatek

finished with more. There was her first title, in Hobart, and systematic improvement in the majors: Australian Open (third round), Roland Garros (fourth round), Wimbledon (quarterfinals) and US Open (semifinals).

She was voted the WTA Tour’s Most Improved Player, which caught her by surprise.

“Coming out of college I thought maybe I’ll play for a couple of years and it probably won’t go that well, then I’ll hang up the racquet,” Navarro said. “Obviously, it didn’t quite pan out like that.

“I definitely surpassed my expectations, not only for the year but for my whole career.”

Navarro and a host of marquee players from the bottom half of the draw are in second-round action again Thursday. Here’s a look at the key matchups:

Emma Raducanu vs. Amanda Anisimova

Head-to-head: 0-0.

While they have never played a match, these two have shared eerily similar trajectories in their careers.

Raducanu, now 22, stunned the tennis world when she won the 2021 US Open as a qualifier. Anisimova, 23, was only 17 when she reached the semifinals at Roland Garros in 2019.

Neither has approached that early success again.

“I think that performing well at a young age definitely comes with its perks and also some challenges,” Anisimova said. “I feel like you learn a lot of things along the way. We both have so much ahead of us. At the same time we’re very young and we have so much experience, so I feel like that serves us with a lot of positives.”

Anisimova finds a kindred spirit in Raducanu at Australian Open

Raducanu sees it the same way.

“Obviously you get a lot of attention,” she said. “Maybe certain decisions are judged or what you’re doing is potentially criticized. At the same time I feel like it’s given us a great platform to be able to have opportunities, to be able to invest in our team. I think I want to look at the positive and optimistic side, as well.”

Raducanu took out No.26 Ekaterina Alexandrova

7-6(4), 7-6(2), while Anisimova was a 6-2, 6-3 winner over .

No.2 Iga Swiatek vs. Rebecca Sramkova

Head-to-head: 0-0.

Despite the turbulence of off-court issues and working with new coach Wim Fissette, Swiatek went about her business in the first round, defeating Katerina Sinakova 6-3, 6-4.

It’s what she does. Swiatek has made it to the second round of all 20 Grand Slams played since the start of the 2020 season.

“I think I only lost once in the first round,” said Swiatek, who was aware of the streak. “It was at Wimbledon in 2019. I wish I didn’t play so my stat would be perfect. It shows that I’m consistent.”

Swiatek is now 18-6 at the Australian Open, but only once in six appearances has she advanced beyond the fourth round. Sramkova, a 28-year-old from Slovakia who won her first WTA title in Hua Hin last September, was a 3-6, 6-2, 6-2 winner over Katie Volynets

No.4 Jasmine Paolini vs. Renata Zarazua

Head-to-head: 0-0.

Paolini defeated qualifier Wei Sijia 6-0, 6-4 on Tuesday.

“I didn’t know the opponent very well,” Paolini said afterward. “I never practiced with her, never played a match.”

Thursday, she gets another unknown quantity, the No.70-ranked Zarazua, who was a 6-7(8), 6-1, 6-2 winner over Taylor Townsend

No.6 Elena Rybakina vs. [WC] Iva Jovic

Head-to-head: 0-0.

First it was the junior No.1, now it's the junior No.2. Rybakina was a 6-1, 6-0 winner over 16-year-old Australian Emerson Jones

in the first round, and faces 17-year-old in the second. The American was a 6-2, 6-1 winner over to reach the second round for the second time in as many majors in her young career.

No.8 Emma Navarro vs. Wang Xiyu

Head-to-head: 1-0, Navarro, in the first round of last year’s Australian Open.

While these two players are separated by 86 spots in the PIF WTA Rankings, that sole meeting was a tight one -- Navarro escaped 6-1, 6-7(5), 7-5.

Wang, ranked No.108, defeated Julia Grabher

6-1, 7-5 in her first round match. Navarro’s three-set win over Stearns was her 11th comeback win including last year -- equaling and Zheng Qinwen for the tour lead.

No.10 Danielle Collins vs. [Q] Destanee Aiava

Head-to-head: 0-0.

Aiava has thrilled the Melbourne crowds, rolling through qualifying and coming back to win her first-round match 5-7, 7-5, 7-6[5] over Greet Minnen

. The 24-year-old Aussie is ranked only No.195 but saved two match points and prevailed in three hours.

Her winnings of $200,000 will allow her to play all the tournaments her ranking will allow and, perhaps, bring a family member for support.

“It really helps,” she told reporters. “Financially tennis is so expensive. I struggle traveling on my own. The fact that I get to bring my fiancé with me and hopefully one of my family members to the big ones, yeah, it makes a world of a difference.”

Collins, a finalist here three years ago, defeated qualifier Daria Snigur

7-6(4), 6-3.