Emma Navarro, semifinalist in the last US Open, suffered a blow in the Hong Kong Tournament when she lost in the quarterfinals against Anna Blinkova. A week ago, Navarro surprised the tennis world by announcing her presence in that tournament, a WTA 125 to which she clearly arrived as top favorite.
However, with this disappointing defeat, it is her immediate pursuer in the WTA Race to Riyadh,
Zheng Qinwen, who could take the last place for the WTA Finals.
Navarro fell to seventh-seeded Anna Blinkova by a score of 6-4, 6-3. This result is especially shocking given that Blinkova had lost ten consecutive matches prior to this match and had won only four of her last twenty-four matches.
The decision to participate in Hong Kong, a tournament that is not part of the official WTA circuit, came after her unexpected loss to Zhang Shuai in her first match at the China Open.
Navarro currently has 3,568 points and is in a close battle with China's Zheng Qinwen, who is in eighth place with 3,460 points. If Qinwen can advance to the China Open final and win, she would overtake Navarro in the rankings. The situation becomes even more complicated with the upcoming Wuhan Open, where the last important points before the aforementioned finals will be played.
Both players have just had an uncomfortable moment after Navarro herself referred to her Chinese counterpart saying that she "did not respect her as a player and that she did not have good attitude on the court".
Neither Navarro nor Zheng can afford to be careless, given that there are two more candidates aiming for that seventh place in the rankings in Riyadh: Spain's Paula Badosa and Russia's Daria Kasatkina. The pressure is mounting and every match at this decisive stage of the season counts.
