Navarro upsets Mboko in Strasbourg for first title in 15 months

What a week it's been for Emma Navarro. On Saturday, The World No. 39 upset No. 9 Victoria Mboko 6-0, 5-7, 6-2 to capture the Internationaux de Strasbourg title, earning her third career WTA Tour Driven by Mercedes-Benz trophy and first-ever on clay. It's her first championship in 15 months, when she won Merida in February 2025.

Strasbourg: Scores | Draws | Order of play

After an unexpected start to season, battling illness and being forced to withdraw from several tournaments over the past couple months, Navarro refound her game in southeastern France, defeating the likes of Mboko and compatriot Iva Jovic en route to her second WTA 500 title. 

"It's kind of been a little bit of a rocky year and a half or so, but I think we put in a lot of really good work," Navarro said on court during the trophy presentation.

What it means?

• This is the American's seventh win in her career over a Top 10 player, most recently defeating then-No.2 Iga Swiatek in Beijing last year.
• Navarro's now 3-0 in WTA singles finals after winning the titles at 2024 Hobart and 2025 Merida Mboko falls to 2-3 in finals, with all three defeats coming in 2026 -- Adelaide, Doha and Strasbourg.
• The last time Navarro had five consecutive wins in a row was during her run to the 2024 US Open quarterfinals. During her Merida title last year, Navarro only played four matches as she had a first round bye.
• Navarro ends Mboko's nine-match win streak of three-set matches as Mboko entered Saturday 9-1 in 2026 in matches that go to a deciding set.
• After three previous quarterfinal finishes in Strasbourg, Navarro advanced past to ultimately win the tournament becoming the fifth American to hoist the trophy.
• Navarro is projected to rise to No. 25 in the PIF WTA Rankings as a result, up 14 spots from her current No. 39.

How it happened?

A 6-0 sweep: If there was any question if Navarro was back in form or not, the first set certainly proved she's doing just fine. Mboko struggled in the opener with a uncharacteristic 20 unforced errors in the first set -- she finished with 57 -- much of that created by the shot placement by Navarro, who diversified her shot placement and stretched Mboko to the corners. In comparison, Navarro had just three unforced errors.

Mboko had her chances to quell the lead, most notably in the game of the match, where Navarro and Mboko created 12 deuces and 29 points in the fourth game of the set. In the ninth deuce and on an Mboko game point, Navarro had her shot of the match. Seemingly, Mboko had an easy volley to put away the point, but Navarro guessed correctly on the direction of the shot, rifled a ball right back to Mboko at the net.

Mboko reacted with a good drop shot -- which foreshadowed what was to come -- but Navarro put on the wheels to cover the court with a forehand cross-court winner at the net. Navarro finished the set, perfect on serve and on the return, not dropping a game in 39 minutes.

A toe-to-toe second with a saved championship point: To open the second, Mboko showed some signs of life, breaking Navarro with a potential opportunity to build some momentum. That would be short-lived as Mboko handed Navarro the break right back with a double fault. Similarly a few games later as Navarro led 3-2, Mboko double faulted to create triple break point, which the American capitalized on to have a 4-2 advantage.

That's when it started to change. A break and hold by Mboko, who started to effectively use the drop shot more frequently, now had the match right back on track, level at 4-4. The drop shot became Mboko's reliant weapon later in the second set, and several times Navarro couldn't get from the baseline to dig the ball because the touch on the drop shot was flawless. Still, Mboko had her work cut out for her, and was forced to save a championship point at 5-4, 40-30, before breaking Navarro to recapture the lead at 6-5. Fittingly, Mboko held serve at love, capped off with another drop shot, one of her 37 winners to Navarro's 21.

Navarro remains calm, cool and collected in the third: Navarro's tool to success in the the decider was her serve, holding her first two service games at love ultimately winning 12 of the first 13 points on serve. The set, in some ways, paralleled what happened in the first as Mboko amassed more unforced errors and Navarro developed a 4-1 lead.

Mboko stopped the bleeding temporarily in a must-win sixth game, where she had to save a break point to avoid going down two breaks. Then, her prime opportunity arose to get the match back on serve where she had two break points. On the second Mboko framed the ball, which sailed, and Mboko bent over and looked at the clay in disappointment as Navarro was a game away from the championship.

The afternoon was summed up in the final game, when Mboko double faulted for the sixth time on a game point, and slipped on the penultimate point as Navarro now heads to Paris with her best form of the season.

What's next? 

Both players will make the quick trip north to Paris for the second Grand Slam of the season in Roland Garros. Mboko, then ranked No. 120, sneakily put herself on the map at the French Open last year, advancing out of qualifying to the third round where she lost to No. 8 seed Zheng Qinwen. Navarro, the No. 9 seed, was upset in the first round by Jessica Bouzas Maneiro. 

In the first round this year, Navarro will face Janice Tjen while Mboko takes on Nikola Bartunkova.