logo
Emma Navarro beats defending Wimbledon champ Barbora Krejcikova. There will be a first-time winner

Emma Navarro beats defending Wimbledon champ Barbora Krejcikova. There will be a first-time winner

Fox Sports05-07-2025
Associated Press
LONDON (AP) — Emma Navarro describes herself as 'stubborn' and her tennis as 'scrappy.' The American's attitude and game both were in just the right places at Wimbledon on Saturday, when she pulled off another Grand Slam victory over a defending champion by eliminating Barbora Krejcikova 2-6, 6-3, 6-4.
Sending an ill and dizzy Krejcikova home in the third round, the 10th-seeded Navarro extended a recent run of one-and-done winners at the All England Club and assured the grass-court major of yet another first-time women's champion.
'Something I take a lot of pride in is being tough and fighting till the last point, no matter what the circumstances are. It's something I always try to do,' said Navarro, who was born in New York, grew up in South Carolina and won the 2021 NCAA championship for the University of Virginia. 'I could never live with myself if I ever gave up. It's just not in my nature. I don't think it's in any of my family members' nature to ever give up on anything. I guess we're a stubborn bunch.'
Krejcikova faded in the third set, getting her blood pressure checked at the changeover after Navarro broke her to lead 3-2 at No. 1 Court. Krejcikova ate a banana and drank liquids during the medical timeout, while Navarro walked to her guest box and spoke to her coach during the break in action.
When play resumed, Krejcikova showed clear signs of being in distress, often leaning over and placing her hands on her knees between points.
'I was actually feeling worse and worse,' said Krejcikova, who was seeded 17th but now will tumble out of the top 70 in the WTA rankings. 'It's very sad for me and very unfortunate.'
This is hardly Navarro's first big win on a big stage. Last year, she eliminated Coco Gauff at Wimbledon to reach her first major quarterfinal. Then, in a rematch a couple of months later, Navarro won again at the U.S. Open — where Gauff was the 2023 champion — en route to her debut in a Slam semifinal.
Whoever ends up winning the Wimbledon women's title on July 12 will be the ninth champion in the past nine editions of the grass-court Grand Slam tournament. Serena Williams was the last repeat champ in 2016.
The trophy-takers since then have been Garbine Muguruza in 2017, Angelique Kerber in 2018, Simona Halep in 2019, Ash Barty in 2021 — all of whom are now retired — Elena Rybakina in 2022, Marketa Vondrousova in 2023 and then Krejcikova (the tournament was canceled in 2020 because of COVID-19).
Rybakina lost Saturday; Vondrousova exited in the second round.
Against Krejcikova, Navarro was down a set and a break at 2-1 in the second before turning things around.
'I kind of regrouped a little, tried to slow things down a bit from my side and make her look at some different shots,' said Navarro, 24, who will meet No. 7 Mirra Andreeva, an 18-year-old Russian, on Monday for a quarterfinal berth. 'Kind of just try to make her as uncomfortable as I could.'
Most points were decided by what Krejcikova did. That's how she ended up with 34 winners — 21 more than Navarro — and 53 unforced errors. Remarkably, Navarro finished with just 11 unforced errors.
Last year's triumph was the second at a major tournament for Krejcikova, who also won the 2021 French Open.
It has been a fortnight filled with surprises, and Navarro is one of four top-10 seeds left in the women's bracket. The others are No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka, who won her third-round match Friday against Emma Raducanu, Andreeva and No. 8 Iga Swiatek, a 6-2, 6-3 winner against Danielle Collins on Saturday.
'My slice is coming along pretty nicely. I'm able to use that to my advantage,' Navarro said. 'Played scrappy at times. Played tough. Hit some good groundstrokes, as well. I feel pretty good about where I'm at.'
___
More AP tennis: https://apnews.com/hub/tennis
Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

Jofra Archer's triumphant return helps England defeat India at Lord's
Jofra Archer's triumphant return helps England defeat India at Lord's

Fox Sports

time34 minutes ago

  • Fox Sports

Jofra Archer's triumphant return helps England defeat India at Lord's

Associated Press LONDON (AP) — It was July 14. Of course Jofra Archer was going to open the bowling for England against India on the final day of the Lord's test on Monday. 'Yeah, part of the reason I went with Jof this morning ... six years ago now to the day,' England captain Ben Stokes said. On July 14, 2019, Archer helped England won its first Cricket World Cup trophy in the most dramatic final against New Zealand, also at Lord's. 'He played a major role,' Stokes said, 'and I had a feeling he'd do something special (on Monday) and crack the game open.' In the fourth over of the day, Archer sent Rishabh Pant's off stump cartwheeling. Then in the day's eighth over, he got Washington Sundar with a fantastic one-hand caught-and-bowled. Archer and Stokes combined to take 3-11 in the first 40 minutes and hastened India's demise from 58-4 overnight to 82-7. India, chasing 193, was eventually dismissed for 170 and England won by 22 runs to take a 2-1 lead in the five-match series. Archer's first test in 4 1/2 years produced an impressive match haul of five wickets. 'I had a gut feeling that Jof's going to do something in his first game back,' Stokes said. 'Every time he's announced on the tannoy, the ground erupts, and when the speeds go up on the screen, the feeling changes.' Archer regularly worried India by bowling at speeds of up to 90 mph (145 kph). But he was managed by Stokes, never doing more than five-over spells and spaced well apart. It frustrated Archer but he also understood after years of being sidelined by elbow and back injuries. 'It was pretty hectic, for the first game back,' he told broadcaster Sky Sports. "I probably bowled a few more overs than I thought I would've (39.2 in the match) but every single one mattered today so I'm not too fussed about it. 'Only played one test at Lord's (on debut in 2019) and that one was just as special as this one. It's been a long time coming, a lot of rehab, a lot of training. But moments like this make it worth it.' 'Managing the workload is still very hard, being told you can bowl some days and not others.' Archer never thought he would not return to test cricket. His previous test was in February 2021 in Ahmedabad, and his previous home test was in August 2020. 'I'm not totally out of the woods yet but it's a good start,' he said. 'The style of cricket that this team plays, it means I'm going to bowl a lot of overs!' Archer didn't hold back either when he verbally sprayed Pant and Sundar after dismissing them. It was all part of the passions brought on by earlier incidents between the teams. "We came together as a group yesterday and said, you know, sometimes we're too nice. We go to other places and some teams are not as nice to us as we are to them so I guess we just tried to shift it. I don't know if it gave us a bit more of a buzz in the field or not but we will keep it in the bank for the future! 'It wasn't a proud moment (to Pant). I just told him to cherish that moment. He came down the track and that annoyed me a little bit so when the ball nipped down the slope (and bowled him), I was so grateful.' ___ AP cricket: in this topic

Kelly: Jonah Savaiinaea and other second-round picks can create NFL necessary change
Kelly: Jonah Savaiinaea and other second-round picks can create NFL necessary change

Miami Herald

time43 minutes ago

  • Miami Herald

Kelly: Jonah Savaiinaea and other second-round picks can create NFL necessary change

Jonah Savaiinaea's football conditioning, mastery of the offense, playbook and his technique are critical to the Miami Dolphins' success in 2025. Dolphins management traded a significant amount of resources to move up 11 spots in the 2025 NFL Draft to select the University of Arizona offensive lineman early in the second round with the intent of making him one of the team's two starting guards. His development is a major story line of training camp, which technically begins Tuesday when the rookies report. But unfortunately for the team, a healthy Savaiinaea might be forced to sit out days, if not weeks of training camp because the versatile and athletic lineman plays an important role when it comes to the NFL's future, and its workforce's multidecade push for contracts to become fully guaranteed. First-round picks are typically the only players in the NFL who have their entire contracts fully guaranteed at the initial signing. That has been the case since 2011 when the Collective Bargaining Agreement changed, and subsequently drastically reduced the rookie salary scale. However, two of the 32 second-round picks had their entire rookie deals guaranteed this year, and agents around the league (and the NFLPA if they smarten up) intend to create a domino effect that possibly changes how the NFL does business. If each 2025 second-round pick holds out until his four-year deal (which is worth $7.1 million for the last pick (64), and $11.8 million for the 33rd pick) is fully guaranteed then that becomes two of the seven rounds of the draft that have their rookie deals guaranteed. And maybe in the next year or two it will become the third-rounders, and the year or two after that the fourth rounders, and so on and so on. Football is the most popular profitable, and brutal American professional sport, and ironically it's the only one where the contracts players sign aren't guaranteed. But what most people don't know is that there isn't any Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) language that makes NBA, NHL and MLB contracts guaranteed, it's just the way those sports have done business over time, and it eventually became the culture of those leagues. That's what needs to happen to football, and there's no better time than now considering collegiate NIL contracts are steadily soaring (SEC starters reportedly earn at least $800,000 based on agent sources). We will soon get to the point where college football teams might be offering a player projected as a second or third-round pick more money than the NFL, which pays rookies a signing bonus based on the round they are selected in, and a $840,000 base salary this season. Coincidentally, that base salary goes up based on playing-time incentives for young players not drafted in the first or second round because they aren't eligible. That might explain why former tight end Durham Smythe was nearly making double what Mike Gesicki was earning in the fourth year of their rookie deals when they came from the same draft. The difference was Smythe was a fourth-round pick, selected two round behind Gesicki. The prevalence of guaranteed contracts in the NBA, MLB and NHL are largely produced by the demand for these top athletes, rather than a specific mandate in CBA language. But NFL owners, and the people who work for them on behalf of the team, are dead set against this, especially since the NFL has the largest workforce. The league was actually caught colluding against that workforce to prevent guaranteed salaries based on an independent investigation recently done. This past decade only two quarterbacks received full guaranteed contracts. Minnesota gave Kirk Cousins one in 2018, and Cleveland gave Deshaun Watson the second in the five-year, $230 million renegotiated deal he got after the Browns traded for him in 2022. An independent investigation found that NFL owners and management colluded to ensure that nobody followed Watson during the offseason Lamar Jackson, a two-time MVP, because a free agent in 2023, and nobody but the Ravens bid on his services. And what was the NFL's punishment for these collusion findings? A slap on the wrist, maybe. Nothing will ever change until a select group of NFL players and their agents take a stand, and this might be that time. Maybe missing the team's starting guard for the first month of training camp will force the Dolphins to eventually cave on their collusive efforts. After all, we're haggling over guaranteeing $2.4 million more of the $11.3 million Savaiinaea is expected to earn during the next four years. Keep in mind that NFL owners haven't taken a financial loss in decades, and the salary cap has nearly doubled from a decade ago when the cap was $143.3 million. It has risen by $135.9 million in a decade, to $279.2 million which means each team's profits have doubled as well since the cap is based on profit sharing. And that's annually. We're at the point where Dolphins owner Steve Ross has reportedly turned down a $10 billion offer to sell his franchise, and sports holdings, which he initially paid $1.1 billion for in 2009. Talk about a return on an investment! So crying poverty isn't the right approach, especially to player advocates like myself, who can name two dozen players I've covered since 2007 struggling with endless medical issues they developed from playing this brutal sport. At some point something has to give if the NFLPA wants to create change, inching toward guaranteed contracts for its workforce. This is up to the teams and agents to figure out, but at some point the NFL has to negotiate in good faith, which would be a complete about-face of how they've done business for 50-plus years. Hopefully Savaiinaea and these 28 other second-round picks are willing to become the 32 players who create the necessary change by sidelining themselves, holding out.

Disturbing details emerge from Browns rookie Quinshon Judkins' arrest over incident with girlfriend
Disturbing details emerge from Browns rookie Quinshon Judkins' arrest over incident with girlfriend

New York Post

time44 minutes ago

  • New York Post

Disturbing details emerge from Browns rookie Quinshon Judkins' arrest over incident with girlfriend

Browns running back Quinshon Judkins allegedly punched his girlfriend in the mouth with a closed fist, leaving her with 'visible bruising on her chin area' according to an arrest report detailing the disturbing July 7 incident. The incident began at the Fort Lauderdale airport, where Judkins and the victim arrived after a flight, the report stated and resulted in the rookie's arrest and being charged with misdemeanor domestic battery in Broward County, Fla. The 21-year-old Judkins, whom the Browns selected 36th overall in the 2025 draft, allegedly began to grow angry at the victim while at baggage claim, saying 'Oh wow, I can't believe you' and 'I'm so done with you' after reading messages from family members. 3 Quinshon Judkins was arrested in Fort Lauderdale on Saturday. Zac Jackson/X Judkins is reported to have struck the victim while they were in a car leaving the airport as the victim tried to explain that the messages were not true. According to the the police report, Judkins eventually pulled over and the victim exited the car to call Judkins' mother, and sat in the rear seat when she returned. The report stated that the arguing continued, and that Judkins allegedly turned around to strike the victim additional times, in the arm and leg. 3 Browns rookie Quinshon Judkins speaks to reporters on May 9. AP Judkins allegedly later pulled into a Burger King parking lot and the victim exited the vehicle again, and told Judkins, 'Don't touch me again' after re-entering the car. The report stated that Judkins and the victim were living together from May 2024 until December 2024, but that they were not in a relationship from December until June, when they got back together. The victim contacted the authorities on Saturday, per authorities, and Judkins, who invoked his Miranda rights when speaking with officers, spent the night at Fort Lauderdale Jail. 3 The Browns selected Quinshon Judkins 36th overall in the 2025 NFL Draft. AP The Pike Road, Ala. native had his initial court appearance Sunday morning, and his bond was set at $2,500, according to CBS Miami. The Browns said they are 'aware and gathering more details,' while the NFL is 'aware of the matter but will decline further comment,' a league official told ESPN. Judkins is a former standout at Ole Miss (2022-23) and Ohio State (2024) and remains unsigned.

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into a world of global content with local flavor? Download Daily8 app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store