London – Defending Wimbledon champion Barbora Krejcikova lost 2-6, 6-3, 6-4 to 10th seed Emma Navarro in the third round on Saturday.
Krejcikova disappeared in the third set and checked her blood pressure after Navarro took a 3-2 lead in the 1st house. Krejcikova ate bananas and drank liquids during the medical timeout while Navarro walked to her guest box and spoke to her coach during the break.
After the game resumed, Krejcikova showed obvious signs of being troubled, often leaning and placing her hands on her knees between two points.
Still, she managed to get back to 3 before Navarro went bankrupt again and then led 5-3. Two games later, it’s over.
Most of the points are done by Krejcikova. That’s how she ended up winning 34 winners – 21 more than Navarro, and 53 unmandated mistakes. It is worth noting that Navarro has only 11 unmandatory errors.
The person who ended up winning the women’s championship on July 12 will be the ninth title in the past nine editions of the Grass Grand Slam Championship. Serena Williams was the last champion of 2016.
Since then, the trophysters have been Garbiñe Muguruza in 2017, Angelique Kerber in 2018, Simona Halep in 2019, Ash Barty in 2021 (now retired) – Elena Rybakina in 2022, Elena Rybakina in 2023, Marketa Vondrousova in 2023, and then Krejcikikova. Rybakina also lost Saturday, while Vondrousova exited in the second round.
Last year’s victory was the second game of a major championship held by Krejcikova, who also won the 2021 French Open and was the No. 17 seed for Wimbledon this year.
It was a two-week full of surprises, and Navarro was one of the four top ten seeds left in the women’s brackets. The others were No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka, who won Saturday’s title in the third round against Emma Raducanu on Friday.
