Success at grass courts carries extra significance, with the switch from clay to grass taking less than a week. Yet Emma Navarro, she arrived at the Bad Homburg Open already in fine form after reaching the final at the Nottingham Open. And yesterday, the American carried that momentum brilliantly, stunning Iga Swiatek to underline her growing confidence ahead of The Championships.

“There’s not a ton of rhythm,” Navarro said at the post-match interview. “I think both of us felt that throughout the match, so it came down to a lot of serving, and I relied on my serve there at the end. And it ended up getting me through,” she added.

The former world No. 8’s performance did not begin smoothly. Midway through the opening set, the American only landed 20% of her first serve. Yet, she slowly found her range as the set went on. 

At the opposite side of the net, the current world No. 3 struggled badly on serve, as Iga committed 7 double faults in the first set alone.

The 25-year-old bounced back strongly in the second set. She won 100% of her first-serve points, despite landing only 42% of her first serves. But the American responded with her best tennis when it mattered most. Navarro’s serve was much stronger in the final set and looked far more reliable, which gave a win 7-5, 2-6, 6-3 and sent her to the QF.

The victory also leveled Navarro’s H2H record with the Pole at 2-2. The American ace has now won each of their last 2 meetings, with both victories coming in difficult three-set battles.

Navarro had also defeated the six-time Grand Slam champion at the China Open last year, where that match also went the distance before the American ace came through.

Navarro has now reached the QF in all four of her Bad Homburg appearances and will next face 28-year-old Romanian Elena-Gabriela Ruse for a place in the SF. And as for Iga, her SW19 title defense looks a bit more worrying after yesterday’s defeat.

Iga Swiatek’s poor performance on court continues

The former world No. 1 returned to a competition this week for the first time since her Roland Garros campaign. As the top seed at the German WTA 500 event, she received a first-round bye. Expectations were high from the start as she began her grass-court preparations.

Instead, Iga suffered defeat in her opening match of the tournament, and that result leaves her heading into the grass court Slam at the All-England Club without much match practice or momentum.

The timing is also far from ideal. The Pole will now begin the defense of her Wimbledon title, still searching for her best form. So far, Iga Swiatek has not reached a WTA Tour final this season. Yet, she had hoped returning to Bad Homburg would help turn things around.

And there is certainly a reason behind that hope. The venue had brought her success before, as she had reached at least the SF in each of her previous two appearances there.

However, things did not go as planned this time around. Against the American, she committed 9 double faults and failed to take her chances during the biggest moments of an otherwise closely contested match.

Despite making changes to her coaching team by bringing in the former coach of Rafael Nadal, Francisco Roig, breakthrough results have still not arrived. In fact, her best result since the coaching change remains her run at the Italian Open, where she reached the semis, which isn’t ideal enough.

After a fourth-round exit at the Parisian Slam and limited preparation before defending her Venus Rosewater Dish, serious questions now surround Swiatek’s chances at SW19 this year.