Emma Navarro, the 13th-seeded American tennis player, has shed light on her controversial exchange with Zheng Qinwen at the Summer Olympic Games in Paris. During the match, Navarro reportedly told Zheng, “I don’t know how you have a lot of fans.”
Speaking after reaching the semifinals of the US Open, Navarro explained that her remarks were not a spur-of-the-moment outburst. She felt that Zheng had disrespected her and the sport throughout the match.
“I felt that way the whole match,” Navarro said. “Even if I had won, I probably would have said the same thing.”
Navarro and Zheng have a history from their days on the junior circuit, where they played three times at big events. Navarro believes that Zheng’s behavior on the court has been disrespectful.
“I don’t want to go super into the weeds with it,” Navarro said. “But I think during that match and, you know, on the practice court and the last few times I’ve played her…I felt just a little bit disrespected by her.”
“I don’t want to, like I said, go too into detail with it. But yeah, I think she didn’t necessarily treat me or the sport with respect. That’s why I said what I said after the match.”
Navarro and Zheng could face off in the US Open semifinals on Thursday if Zheng defeats No. 2 seed Aryna Sabalenka in their quarterfinal. At the time of the Olympic incident, Zheng said she would not take Navarro’s words personally and expressed a desire to speak privately about their apparent issues. However, Navarro confirmed that they have not spoken since the Olympics.
“You know, maybe it’s just one person’s opinion,” Navarro said. “Yeah, it wasn’t an emotional outburst. It was just kind of matter of factually how I felt.”
Zheng leads their tour-level head-to-head 2-0, though both of those meetings were on clay.
