Defending Wimbledon Champion Swiatek Falls to Navarro in first Grass Outing of 2016

Iga Swiatek stormed through the 2025 grass season, winning 10 of 11 matches and emerging as a first-time Wimbledon champion after one of the most dominant final performances in tournament history.

The Pole opened her 2026 grass-court season on a different note, falling to American Emma Navarro, 7-5, 2-6, 6-3 in her first match on the surface this year.

Not the ideal way to begin a title defense for Swiatek. The Pole is a player who likes to have plenty of matches under her belt ahead of a major, but she’ll head to SW19 with just one grass-court match completed this season.

As for Navarro, it was another quality win for last week’s Nottingham runner-up, one that featured a strong deciding set.

She struck 14 winners against just three unforced errors in the final set to improve to 2-2 lifetime against the six-time major champion.

“It’s tough. It’s warm out. The ball is kind of flying. There’s not a ton of rhythm,” Navarro said in her on-court 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.”

Navarro broke Swiatek four times in seven opportunities and finished with 22 winners against 14 unforced errors. Swiatek countered with 34 winners and 28 unforced errors, including nine double faults.

Navarro, who missed time earlier this month due to physical and mental health challenges, has been trending in the right direction. She won her third career title in Strasbourg before Roland Garros and has climbed from No.39 to No.24 in just over a month.

She will face Romanian qualifier Elena-Gabriela Ruse in the quarterfinals.

Fourth-seeded Karolina Muchova, who defeated Irina-Camelia Begu, 6-1, 6-1, will face Clara Tauson in the quarterfinals after the Dane rallied past Zheng Qinwen, 5-7, 6-4, 6-2.