{"id":219897,"date":"2026-01-06T16:41:16","date_gmt":"2026-01-06T16:41:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/219897\/"},"modified":"2026-01-06T16:41:16","modified_gmt":"2026-01-06T16:41:16","slug":"second-seed-navarro-and-former-us-open-champion-stephens-beaten-at-asb-classic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/219897\/","title":{"rendered":"Second seed Navarro and former US Open champion Stephens beaten at ASB Classic"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Great<\/p>\n

\nGreat Britain\u2019s Francesca Jones during her singles match on the opening day of the 2026 ASB Classic Women\u2019s Tennis Tournament at Manuka Doctor Arena, Auckland, New Zealand. Monday 5 January 2026. \u00a9 Photo: Andrew Cornaga \/ www.photosport.nz
\nPhoto: Andrew Cornaga\/www.photosport.nz\n<\/p>\n

Second seed Emma Navarro has been beaten in the first round of the ASB Classic in Auckland.<\/p>\n

The American was beaten in three sets by Francesca Jones of Great Britain (7-5, 2-6, 6-4).<\/p>\n

For 72nd ranked Jones, beating 15th ranked Navarro was the biggest win of her career.<\/p>\n

“Of course, she’s a phenomenal player, and I love her game style, but I think more so, because it’s the first match of the year as well,” Jones said.<\/p>\n

“So to come out to here and play with that level is amazing.<\/p>\n

\"Great<\/p>\n

\nGreat Britain\u2019s Francesca Jones during the 2026 ASB Classic Women\u2019s Tennis Tournament.
\nPhoto: Andrew Cornaga\/www.photosport.nz\n<\/p>\n

“Obviously Emma will have stuff that she’s still working on. First match of the year, everyone’s a bit rusty, but I’m just proud to start the year like that.”<\/p>\n

Jones tried to stay aggressive against Navarro and also mixed up her shots, throwing in powerful crosscourt forehands, with deep slices to put the American under pressure.<\/p>\n

“I couldn’t have asked for more really, but obviously, the result is amazing,” Jones said.<\/p>\n

“For me, the main thing is just trying to start the year with a good attitude, which is always difficult. Everyone’s nervous and not feeling their best.”<\/p>\n

Navarro wasn’t the only name player to be beaten with former ASB Classic champion Sloane Stephens of the United States beaten by Mexico’s Renata Zarazua (5-7, 6-4, 6-2).<\/p>\n

Stephens was the 2017 US Open champion.<\/p>\n

In the doubles, Elina Svitolina and Venus Williams were beaten along with the New Zealand pairing of Monique Barry and Elyse Tse.<\/p>\n

In action on Tuesday is singles top seed Svitolina and the doubles top seeds of Asia Muhammad of the USA and Erin Routliffe on New Zealand.<\/p>\n

Sign up for Ng\u0101 Pitopito K\u014drero<\/a>, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Great Britain\u2019s Francesca Jones during her singles match on the opening day of the 2026 ASB Classic Women\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":219898,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[48,47,111,43,139,69,49,46,44,45,213],"class_list":{"0":"post-219897","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-audio","9":"tag-current-affairs","10":"tag-new-zealand","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-newzealand","13":"tag-nz","14":"tag-podcasts","15":"tag-public-radio","16":"tag-radio-new-zealand","17":"tag-rnz","18":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219897","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=219897"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219897\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/219898"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=219897"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=219897"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=219897"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}