{"id":388255,"date":"2026-01-04T20:12:12","date_gmt":"2026-01-04T20:12:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/388255\/"},"modified":"2026-01-04T20:12:12","modified_gmt":"2026-01-04T20:12:12","slug":"tennis-wta-auckland-2026-francesca-jones-opens-2026-with-her-debut-in-auckland-facing-second-seed-emma-navarro","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/388255\/","title":{"rendered":"Tennis | WTA Auckland 2026 | Francesca Jones opens 2026 with her debut in Auckland, facing second seed Emma Navarro"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\nBy Ros Satar<\/p>\n<p>Francesca Jones v Emma Navarro [2]<br \/>\nH2H: First Meeting<\/p>\n<p>AUCKLAND, NEW ZEALAND \u2013 Francesca Jones takes on second seed Emma Navarro as she makes her Auckland debut.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Francesca Jones v Emma Navarro [2] | H2H &amp; Match Fundamentals<\/p>\n<p>Francesca Jones v Emma Navarro [2]<br \/>\nH2H: First Meeting)<\/p>\n<p>WTA Auckland<br \/>\nNew Zealand<\/p>\n<p>Hard (O)<br \/>\nPrize Money: $3065<\/p>\n<p>Fourth on Centre Court, not before 6pm (5am GMT)<br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nowtv.com\/watch-sky-sports-online\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Sky\/Now TV<\/a> &lt;- Subscription Required<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/britwatchsports.com\/francesca-jones-gbr\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Francesca Jones<\/a> will make her debut in Auckland but faces a tricky start against American second seed <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tennisabstract.com\/cgi-bin\/wplayer.cgi?p=EmmaNavarro\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Emma Navarro<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Tale of the Tape \u2013 Key Stats (2025)<\/p>\n<p>H2H:<br \/>\nFrancesca Jones (WR 73)<br \/>\nEmma Navarro (WR 15)<\/p>\n<p>Tournament Previous Best<br \/>\nDebut<br \/>\nSF (2024)<\/p>\n<p>1st Serve Return Points Won %<br \/>\n38.8<br \/>\n37.8<\/p>\n<p>Return Points Won %<br \/>\n45.5<br \/>\n46.1<\/p>\n<p>Break Point Conversion %<br \/>\n52.5<br \/>\n50.5<\/p>\n<p>Break Points Saved %<br \/>\n56.9<br \/>\n51.4<\/p>\n<p>Overall Service Points Won %<br \/>\n59.2<br \/>\n57.0<\/p>\n<p>Despite the gulf in the rankings, Jones was more consistent overall on the hard courts in 2025 than Navarro.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.connectedclubs.co.uk\/?wpam_id=24\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-56592 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Connected-Clubs-Graphic.png\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Playing Styles &amp; Prediction<\/p>\n<p>Navarro is a versatile baseliner who relies on a strong forehand and exceptional footwork to slice and dice her opponents. She is not hard to break mentally, staying tough and tending to get under her opponent\u2019s skin.<\/p>\n<p>Jones is also mentally tough having had to deal with the physical adversity, and as such is a very gritty and determined competitor and has scored some scalps in the past when not expected to complete closely.<\/p>\n<p>Jones finished the year strongly with the quarter-final in Guadalajara and Sao Paolo but closed out the year with two first round exits in Guangzhou and Chennai. Navarro reached the quarter-final in Beijing but closed out her season in Wuhan.<\/p>\n<p>It will be an interesting first meeting \u2013 Jones should make Navarro have to work hard for a win, provided she is fit and healthy.<\/p>\n<p>Prediction: Navarro in three sets.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>How to Watch\/Follow WTA Auckland<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Ros Satar Francesca Jones v Emma Navarro [2] H2H: First Meeting AUCKLAND, NEW ZEALAND \u2013 Francesca Jones&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":225334,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[442],"tags":[49,48,38063,1020,82,593,164810],"class_list":["post-388255","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-emma-navarro","tag-francesca-jones","tag-sports","tag-tennis","tag-wta-auckland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/388255","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=388255"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/388255\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/225334"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=388255"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=388255"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=388255"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}