Quote of the Day: Emma Navarro had some words for "cut-throat" Zheng Qinwen after Olympics defeat

Frustration boiled over for Emma Navarro on Tuesday afternoon in Paris, after she bowed out of women’s singles in a three-hour epic to China’s Zheng Qinwen, 6-7 (7), 7-6 (4), 6-1 at the 2024 Olympic Games.

But the American didn’t go out without firing one last parting shot at her “cut-throat” opponent—and this shot is certainly being heard around the world.

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After Zheng threw her arms up in victory and approached Navarro at the net to shake hands, the New York native seemed to have a lot to say to her opponent. Zheng was seen shrugging several times as Navarro spoke heatedly, before the Chinese player eventually walked away and resumed celebrating with the vocal supporters on Court 7.

Navarro didn’t pull any punches when asked about the moment afterward, telling France’s AFP that she has little respect for Zheng, who she says “goes about things in a pretty cut-throat way.”

NAVARRO: I just told her I didn't respect her as a competitor… I think she goes about things in a pretty cut-throat way.

It makes for a locker room that doesn't have a lot of camaraderie, so it's tough to face an opponent like that, who I really don't respect.

But, kudos to her. She played some good tennis there at the end. She played better than me, so congrats to her.

Without more details from Navarro, though, it’s tough to pick out what exactly Zheng was doing that seemed to bother her so much in a relatively incident-free match. Except, of course, the Chinese player was absolutely ripping the ball in the third set, after Navarro failed to serve out the match twice in the second set—having held a match point on her racquet at 5-4—before Zheng eventually came back in the tiebreaker.

From there, Zheng was certainly ‘cut-throat’ in breaking serve twice to start the deciding set with a 4-0 lead, while Navarro never found a way to recover.

Afterward, the No. 6 seed seemed to take the whole incident in stride when asked about Navarro’s comments in the mixed zone.

"She told me she doesn't know how I have a lot of fans," Zheng said, according to AFP.

"It looks like she's not happy with my behavior towards her. If she's not happy about my behavior, she can come and tell me. I would like to correct it to become a better player and a better person."

“I'm glad that she told me that,” Zheng added. “I will not consider it an attack because she lost the match.”

Zheng moves on to quarterfinals, where she faces the retiring Angelique Kerber of Germany next.