Emma Navarro had Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer in her thoughts during her Wimbledon win over Naomi Osaka.
The American reached the third round at the All-England Club following a convincing victory over the four-time Grand Slam champion.
Following a tight first set the 23-year-old continued to apply the pressure as more errors began to spray from Osaka’s racket.
Her convincing performance certainly sends a message to the rest of the field that she could be a contender for the title.
Why was Emma Navarro thinking about Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal?
For the first time in her career, Navarro competed inside tennis’ most prestigious arena – Wimbledon’s Centre Court. She certainly made the most of her time there as she dispatched Osaka 6-4, 6-1 in what was their first meeting.
Navarro needed just 59 minutes to defeat the World number one and struck 16 winners while committing just five unforced errors.
Post-match she described how the feeling of playing on Centre Court reminded her of Federer and Nadal’s great battles.
“I really never watched that much tennis growing up, unless it was a grand slam final. I remember watching Federer and Nadal play, that’s a specific memory I have,” she told reporters.
“I was actually thinking of that when I was out on court today, that I am playing on a court that Federer and Nadal once played on and that’s pretty cool.”
What is Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal’s Wimbledon head-to-head record?
Federer and Nadal had a legendary rivalry that consisted of 40 matches over a period of 15 years. Four of those matches took place at Wimbledon, and the first three came in the final.
In 2006 Federer, who was in the middle of arguably his best season, played the Spanaird who had little experience on grass at the time and claimed a 6–0, 7–6(5), 6–7(2), 6–3 win to secure his fourth title at SW19.
In 2007, the pair met again and the outcome was the same, this time Nadal took the Swiss Maestro to five sets. But the Mallorca native still fell short as his rival claimed his fifth successive Wimbledon championship.
2008 marked the third successive year that the duo played in the Wimbledon final, in what many regard as the greatest match of all time.
Nadal finally rose to the challenge and claimed an epic five-set win to lift the Wimbledon title for the first time. 11 years later the pair’s final match took place at Wimbledon, in the 2019 semi-finals.
Federer, who was plenty of late-career success, outlasted Nadal in four sets to reach the last Wimbledon final of his career, which he narrowly lost to Novak Djokovic.
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