Emma Navarro suffered a shock loss to Elisebetta Cocciaretto in the Billie Jean King Cup finals and she’s explained where she went wrong.
Team USA were beaten by Italy in the Billie Jean King Cup as Cocciaretto’s win was followed up by Jasmine Paolini defeating Jessica Pegula.
Paolini and Cocciaretto helped Italy win the Billie Jean King Cup for consecutive years after picking up the 2024 trophy, as well as the sixth in their history.
Navarro was magnanimous in defeat and explained exactly what her opponent did to comprehensively defeat her.
Emma Navarro opens up on ‘tough’ defeat to Elisebetta Cocciaretto
Navarro picked up a win over Ukraine’s Yulia Putintseva in the quarter-finals, but found her gameplan lacking against Italy.
The star was open about the defeat and explained what Cocciaretto managed to do to nullify her game. “She’s tough,” said the American, who won her semi-final match against Great Britain’s Sonay Kartal in three sets.
“She plays right up on the baseline and rushes you as much as she can,” she added. “Kind of suffocates you sort of in the rallies. That was tough on me. I wasn’t able to push back against that enough.
“She made me uncomfortable. I don’t think I made her nearly uncomfortable enough,” she concluded. “Yeah, I think she also served well. I just didn’t bring a high enough level today.”
This year’s Billie Jean King Cup finals were the first to be hosted in Shenzhen, China, the home of the tournament until 2027.
United States’ wait for Billie Jean King Cup success goes on
America have won the Billie Jean King Cup a record 18 times, but they’ve had to wait a long time for their last taste of success.
The last time the United States picked up the win in the tournament was eight years ago, when they lifted the trophy in Minsk, Belarus.
None of the players who featured in the 2025 edition appeared during America’s last taste of success, such is the amount of time that has passed.
Sloane Stephens, Shelby Rogers, and CoCo Vandeweghe helped America defeat an Aryna Sabalenka-led Belarus in the 2017 final.
