‘Chilled-out’ Navarro brings positive energy into Wimbledon second week

LONDON — As Emma Navarro approached the net after edging Diana Shnaider 2-6, 6-3, 6-4 in the Wimbledon third round, she pulled her beaten opponent in for a hug. It was an identical gesture to seven days previously, after their Bad Homburg semifinal — which Navarro had lost 7-5, 2-6, 6-3.

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“I like to have a good relationship [with my opponent],” No.19 seed Navarro said after booking her place in the second week of a second straight major.

For the American, that’s not just about feeling more at ease herself, but about the bigger picture in terms of how she views the sport.

“When I have a good relationship with my opponent, I think it just creates a really cool atmosphere where, obviously, we want to beat each other, but we’re out there fighting for the same thing and doing what we love, and it’s positive,” Navarro continued. “We’re putting just positive energy out into the world instead of negative energy.

“I think tennis in its more original form is a game of good sportsmanship and of camaraderie. One of the things I love about sport is that it brings a lot of different people together.”

Two of those different people are Navarro, the daughter of Charleston tournament owner Ben Navarro, and Shnaider, whose father was a boxer and mother an English teacher in small-town Russia. The pair, both former U.S. college players, teamed up in doubles at both the Australian Open and Roland Garros — where they notched an eye-catching second-round upset of Hsieh Su-Wei and Elise Mertens — this year.

“She’s really funny, and she’s a great competitor,” Navarro had said ahead of their Wimbledon match. “We had a lot of fun playing doubles together. She plays very courageously, and she goes for her shots.”

Navarro’s affable disposition is part and parcel of the “chilled-out demeanor” she says she’s had since she was a child. Little on court seems to faze her, and her casual, loose-limbed style seems to flow from these zen vibes.

“In this sport you deal with a lot of emotions,” she said. “It’s high stress at times. So it’s something that obviously I have to deal with, but I would say that calmness, I’ve always had.”

Only when asked whether anything had ever made her lose her temper did Navarro seem flummoxed. Eventually, she drew upon another childhood memory.

“Maybe I was a little bit mean to my siblings sometimes growing up,” she said. “Not really bossy, but I had a lot of energy as a kid I think, and maybe I took it out on my siblings sometimes.”

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