Navarro, Collins into Wimbledon Second Week

LONDON – Virginia women’s tennis alumnae Emma Navarro ’22 and Danielle Collins ’16 were the last two American women remaining in the singles field at the Championships at the All England Club in Wimbledon, England.

Navarro defeated No. 2 seed Coco Gauff on Sunday (July 7) to advance to her first-ever quarterfinal of a Grand Slam event. Collins had her best-ever singles finish at Wimbledon, making the Round of 16.

Navarro collected her first-ever win at Wimbledon with a dominant 6-0, 6-2 victory against China’s Qiang Wang in the opening round. Navarro then took Centre Court, facing four-time Grand Slam Champion Naomi Osaka in the second round, logging a 6-4, 6-1 victory. She won in three sets against NC State alumna Diana Shnaider in the third round. Shnaider and Navarro were doubles partners at the French Open, advancing to the quarterfinals, and had also faced one another a week earlier in the semifinals at Bad Hamburg and in the finals of a lead-up to the French Open in Paris in May with Shnaider winning both of those meetings.

With the win against Gauff, Navarro has two wins over Top 2 players in her career, having beaten then-No.2 Aryna Sabalenka earlier this year in Indian Wells.

“Something my coach talks about is looking at matches as if they’re a dual match like in college,” Navarro said. “In college, the format is you play a single match in a week. … You can’t work your way into a tournament, build confidence or whatever. You just are playing one specific opponent on one specific day. I think that mindset has definitely helped me just not to look at a day like today as any different than any other match. I think, yeah, just being able to look at individual matches for what they are and not make them anything greater than that.”

Navarro fell 6-2, 6-1 against No.7 seed Jasmine Paolini on Tuesday (July 9) in the quarterfinals in her third appearance on Centre Court of the tournament.

This is her first time making the quarterfinals of a Grand Slam after advancing to the Round of 16 at the French Open last month.

Collins advanced to the Round of 16 on Saturday (July 6) with a straight-set win against 20-seed Beatriz Haddad Maia. She suffered a 7-5, 6-3 loss against No. 32 Barbora Krejcikova on Monday (July 8).

Collins defeated No. 66 Clara Tauson 6-3, 7-6(4) in the opening round before dispatching qualifier Dalma Galfi 6-3, 6-4 in the second to set-up the meeting with Haddad Maia.

Collins made the doubles semifinals at Wimbledon  in 2022 after a quarterfinal run in 2019, but her previous best showing in singles was the third round in 2019. She was the runner-up in singles at the 2022 Australian Open after being a semifinalist in 2019.

Both players are seeded in the draw: Collins is the 11-seed and Navarro 19. Both were also recently named to the U.S. Olympic Team.

Collins played three seasons at Virginia (2014-16), winning the NCAA Singles titles in 2014 and 2016 and the Honda Sport Award for women’s tennis her senior season. She turned pro after graduating, winning her first WTA 125 title in 2018. In 2019, she advanced to the semifinals in singles at the Australian Open, her best finish at a Grand Slam until finishing as the runner-up at the same event in 2022. She also made the doubles semifinals at Wimbledon in 2022. She has won four WTA singles titles, including back-to-back in Miami and Charleston this year. She debuted in the top 10 of the world rankings in January of 2022 following her Australian Open finals run, ranking as high as No. 7 in July of that year. She returned to a top-10 ranking in May and is currently ranked No. 11.

Navarro played two seasons at Virginia (2021-22), winning the NCAA Singles title as a freshman in 2021. The four-time ITA All-American amassed a 51-3 record in singles and a 33-17 mark in doubles before going pro after her sophomore season. Navarro ended the 2023 season on the WTA tour strong, making the semifinals of the WTA 500 event in San Diego in September and winning the LTA 100K in Charleston in November.  She started 2024 by picking up her first WTA title at the Hobart International, topping Elise Mertens in the final. In back-to-back stellar performances at WTA 1000-level events, she defeated Aryna Sabalenka to advance to the quarterfinals in Indian Wells before making the Round of 16 at the Miami Open. She has had a meteoric rise through the world rankings, cracking the top 200 in March of 2022 and making the top 100 in May of 2023 before reaching a No. 32 ranking before the end of the year. After advancing to the Round of 16 this year at Roland-Garros, she has moved up to a No. 17 world ranking.