Emma Navarro blasts Qinwen Zheng after Olympics loss: 'I just told her I didn't respect her as a competitor'
Tuesday marked the end of Emma Navarro’s Olympics journey. The U.S. tennis star fell to Qinwen Zheng of China in the third round of the women’s singles in three sets – but she raised eyebrows afterward.
The match went nearly three hours and ended with Zheng completing the sweep. That sent her to the women’s singles quarterfinals. As for Navarro, her run came to an end.
After the match ended, Navarro and Zheng had a confrontation at the net, according to reports, and tempers remained high in the post-match press conference. Navarro didn’t hold back, explaining what she said to Zheng before they went their separate ways.
“I just told her I didn’t respect her as a competitor,” Navarro said, via Yahoo Sports. “I think she goes about things in a pretty cut-throat way. It makes for a locker room that doesn’t have a lot of camaraderie, so it’s tough to face an opponent like that, who I really don’t respect.
“But, kudos to her, she played some good tennis there at the end. She played better than me, so congrats to her.”
Zheng also addressed the post-match comments, recalling Navarro wondered how the Chinese star had so many fans. She also called Navarro a “great opponent” during her media session after the match.
“She told me she doesn’t know how I have a lot of fans,” Zheng said. “It looks like she’s not happy with my behavior towards her. If she’s not happy about my behavior, she can come and tell me. I would like to correct it to become a better player and a better person.”
Navarro won the first set of the match 7-6 and Zheng came back to win the second. That set up a decisive third set, and it was Zheng who got the 6-1 win to seal the match and advance to the quarterfinals.
As for how she received Emma Navarro’s comments, Qinwen Zheng said she wasn’t going to think of it as “an attack.”
“I’m glad that she told me that. I will not consider it an attack because she lost the match,” Zheng said.
The Olympics women’s singles continue Wednesday with the quarterfinal round in Paris. That’s when Zheng will take on Angelique Kerber out of Germany. For the U.S., Danielle Collins is still standing and fighting for the gold medal, and she will take on Iga Swiatek from Poland in the quarterfinal on Wednesday.