Top 10 WTA star explains ‘reasoning’ for playing lower level tournament
Top 10 WTA player Emma Navarro has defended her decision to play a lower level tournament last week, as the American reveals that she is ‘looking forward’ to the challenge of qualifying for the year-end Finals.
Navarro has had the best season of her career in 2024, winning her maiden WTA title in Hobart and more recently achieving her best Grand Slam result by reaching the semi-finals of the US Open.
The now 23-year-old was ranked as low as No.149 last year, but as a result of her consistent success is now at a career-high ranking of World No.8.
Due to this, many were surprised to see Navarro appear in the draw for the lower level WTA 125 event in Hong Kong, after suffering an early defeat in Beijing to Shuai Zhang.
Navarro received some criticism for this, as some thought that she was trying to get some easier points to qualify for the WTA Finals.
However, the Wimbledon quarter-finalist has clarified that the 27 points she earned in Hong Kong are not valid for the WTA Finals race anyway and she just wanted some match practice.
“The points in Hong Kong actually didn’t even count towards the race to the Finals,” revealed Navarro. “It was more just I was going to have a week and a half of training after I lost in Beijing, which is a long time to just be training. I wanted to go and try to stay match-ready. Yeah, that was my reasoning for playing Hong Kong.”
Anna Blinkova hardly put a foot wrong all evening, as she saved 10 of 13 break points to thwart world No. 8 Emma Navarro of any comeback, winning in straight sets 6-4 6-3.
比蓮高娃(Anna Blinkova)整場賽事幾乎沒有出錯，她挽救了13個破發分中的10分，擊敗了世界排名第 8的娜華露(Emma… pic.twitter.com/7pmCbe0lwM
— HongKong Tennis Open (@HKTennisOpen) October 4, 2024
Navarro is currently seventh in the race to the WTA Finals with 3568 points, which would currently enable her to qualify for the year-end tournament in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
The job is not done yet though for Navarro, with Olympic champion Qinwen Zheng hot on her heels and trailing by only 108 points heading into the business end of the season.
To qualify for the WTA Finals, players need to be inside the top seven places based on their points earned in 2024, with Wimbledon champion Barbora Krejcikova occupying the eighth spot as a Grand Slam champion this year.
And Navarro is hoping to put solidify her position at this week’s tournament in Wuhan, which is the final WTA 1000 event of the year.
“I’d love to make a run. I’m looking forward to trying to make the WTA Finals at the end of the year. That’s kind of the goal for me right now,” explained Navarro.
“Yeah, there’s just a few tournaments left. Going to try to make a final push towards the end of the season.”
Navarro will begin her debut campaign in Wuhan against Magdalena Frech on Wednesday.
Inside the baseline…
It seems as though a lot of the criticism for Emma Navarro comes as a result of her wealth, but money can only get you so far and the American’s hard work and dedication has been very apparent this year. This is even more highlighted by her recent entry to a lower level tournament in Hong Kong, as it was not even relevant in qualifying for the WTA Finals. Despite it being a lower-level tournament, Navarro actually lost in the quarter-finals and will need an upturn in form if she is to hold off Qinwen Zheng.
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