Andy Roddick thinks Emma Navarro felt the weight of expectations in 2025 and that impacted her results, but believes the 24-year-old is "smart" and will be just fine.
In 2024, the American enjoyed a breakout year on the WTA Tour after becoming a WTA champion in Hobart, reaching her first Grand Slam semifinal at the US Open, and breaking into the top-10.
After establishing herself as one of the better players in the women's game and entering 2025 as the world No. 8, Navarro struggled with consistency for the most part last season. As a result, the American exited the top-10 in June and finished the year sitting at No. 15 in the world.
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However, the 24-year-old still managed to make some notable results, such as winning the WTA 250 tournament in Merida and reaching her first Australian Open quarterfinal.
Roddick, who made five Grand Slam finals and reached the world No. 1 ranking, thinks what happened to Navarro in 2025 was a classic case of a player seeing the increase in expectations for the first time.
Roddick: Navarro wore a different jacket in 2024 when she was the disruptor in the game
Emma Navarro finished 2024 (inside the top-10), she was at seven or eight in the world and made a couple of semis at Slams. So not the year that she had the year before. I think second time through the lineup is a big thing," Roddick said on his podcast.
I think expectation matters. When she walks into a tournament, its like, Oh, youre the favorite, or Youre definitely going to make semis. That takes some getting used to. Thats a different jacket than she was wearing as the disruptor the year before. But game-wise, I think shes going to be fine. Shes a really smart tennis player and actually got better at injecting pace into the ball this year. So I think shell be fine."
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Navarro is set to start her season at the WTA 250 tournament in Auckland, where she will be the No. 2 seed.
Navarro made the Auckland semifinal in her 2024 debut and the ASB Classic could be a great oportunity for the American to start the new season in a strong way.
