By Chris Oddo | @TheFanChild | Wednesday July 3 2024
Emmas were on the move on Day 3 at Wimbledon. Could Navarro or Raducanu make a deep run?
Photo Source: Rob Newell/Camera Sport
Day 3 was a good day for Emmas at Wimbledon.
Scoring impressive wins simultaneously on Center and No.1 Courts on a drizzly Wednesday afternoon, Emma Navarro and Emma Raducanu advanced to the third round in a wide open lower section of the women’s singles draw that should provide plenty of opportunity for both to advance further.
Like Gustave Flaubert’s epic protagonist, Emma Bovary, the plotline of these two Emmas has room to run in SW19 this year. Unlike that fictitious character, whose plight ended tragically, Navarro and Raducanu have a real path to the promised land in London this year.
And given how well each is playing, we’d be remiss not to count them among the many candidates in possession of the potential to break through and reach next Saturday’s final on Centre Court. Already we do know that the lower half will produce a first-time Wimbledon finalist this year, why not one of the two Emmas?
Navarro, who stormed past four-time major champion Naomi Osaka in her Centre Court debut, 6-4, 6-1, put forth a performance reminiscent of Simona Halep’s flawless victory over Serena Williams in the 2019 Wimbledon women’s singles final. Halep produced just three unforced errors in that epic win, while Navarro made just five against Osaka today as she cruised past the Japanese in just 59 minutes to set a third-round clash with Diana Shnaider (another resplendent talent – too bad her name isn’t Emma as well).
Navarro, who had never won a match at Wimbledon before this year, could face Coco Gauff in the round of 16 if she’s able to get past 20-year-old Shnaider (no small task given that the Russian is fresh off of her maiden grass title at Bad Homburg).
The former NCAA champion has been on the up all season, introducing herself to fans by notching eye-catching wins like her three-set triumph over Aryna Sabalenka at Indian Wells. Navarro, who also notched her first WTA title at Hobart in January, made her Top-20 debut in April.
Gauff, seeded second, is the highest-ranked player in the lower half, and the favorite to make it through. But another US Open champion is starting to look like a threat as well. That would be Emma No.2 (Emma No.1 in Great Britain no doubt, but this writer is American and tomorrow’s the fourth of July) – Miss Raducanu.
The resurgent World No.135 thrashed veteran Belgian Elise Mertens 6-1, 6-2 on Wednesday and will face Maria Sakkari, the No.9 seed, in the third round. Definitely winnable – Raducanu defeated Sakkari in their lone meeting at the US Open semifinals, in 2021, and the rest, as they say, was history.
If Raducanu continues to progress through the draw the British hype machine will overheat, but the 21-year-old has been there – and more importantly, done that – before.
Raducanu skipped Roland-Garros to get ready for the grass and clearly she knew what she was doing.
She went through surgeries on both wrists and an ankle last spring, and is only now starting to show her best tennis. Her game flows freely on the grass and her footwork and timing allow her to take the ball early and stay on the front foot. Ditto for Navarro, who has made herself into one of the fittest athletes on tour. She’s bullet proof off of both wings and relentless with her intensity.
There’s a reason she has dropped just seven games in two rounds, and there’s a reason Raducanu has only dropped only 12. They may not be favorites in the wide open lower half of the women’s singles draw, but for now this pair of Emmas is proving the tournament with a level of intrigue and simultaneously easing the sting left when Aryna Sabalenka announced her unfortunate withdrawal due to a shoulder injury prior to Day 1.
Sabalenka was the pick of many to win it all at Wimbledon. Without her the Emmas – and others like them – have grand designs on a title that suddenly doesn’t seem that far out of reach.