Reality check as China players all out
Following Zheng Qinwen's shock loss, three more of her compatriots failed to pass second round in Melbourne
"It's normal to have ups and downs in this sport. I guess I just have to let it sink in, move on and look forward to the next one," said the 24-year-old left-hander, whose previous best at a major was a third-round appearance at the US Open in 2022.
After exchanging breaks with Navarro, a New York native, in the evenly-contested first two sets, Wang went out flying in the third by breaking first to take a 2-0 lead and built it into 4-2 with an imminent victory in sight as long as she managed to hold serve until the end.
The American favorite, however, stepped it up a notch that Wang failed to match as she staged a comeback by winning four games in a row to upset Wang in two hours and 11 minutes and set up a third-round clash against three-time major finalist Ons Jabeur of Tunisia.
"I was able to find something there at the end," Navarro said. "It was really tough the whole time. I knew it was going to be that way. I was ready to handle it. And I found some good tennis there at the end."
Standing 1.82-meter tall with a strong build, Wang's powerful game, featuring aggressive forehands, suggested a bright future on the professional circuit since she won her first and only WTA singles title in Guangzhou in 2023.
Her progression, however, slowed after a string of early-round exits on the circuit, mostly due to sudden loss of form at key moments, over the past year and a half, dragging her out of the top-100 from her career high No 49 in January 2023.
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