America’s Emma Navarro has constantly improved her game in the past few years. Even this year, she made a promising start, reaching the QFs in Adelaide and Melbourne, before getting on to her title-winning run at the Merida Open. In that tournament, Navarro defeated the Colombian qualifier Emiliano Arango by 6-0,6-0 in the final. With that incredible victory, Navarro became the first player to record a ‘double bagel’ scoreline in a final since Iga Swiatek (2021). However, after that, she failed miserably at the ‘Sunshine Doubles’.

Although she reached the QF at the Charleston Open, Navarro looked pretty ordinary in the clay court swing. Recently, she made an exit from the Italian Open after losing to Denmark’s Clara Tauson in a three-set thriller in the R32. However, despite these ups and downs, Navarro managed to sneak in a moment to engage with his compatriot Tommy Paul in a friendly tennis match. But this is not just an ordinary tennis match, it has a twist! What’s it?

Although Navarro has been knocked out of this tournament, Tommy Paul is very much alive at the 2025 Italian Open. In fact, he’s the only American men’s player who’s still alive in this tournament. However, before his blockbuster QF clash against Hubert Hurkacz, the Italian Open’s official X handle, shared a post featuring the friendly match between him and Emma Navarro. The post captioned, “Tennis seems easy… until you roll the dice 🎲 Emma Navarro takes on Tommy Paul in a challenge with one simple rule: the dice decide how you’ll play your next point 👀.” But what were the basic rules of this match and who won this battle, though?

Well, as Paul explained, “Alright, Emma, we’re in Rome. I’ve got a little challenge for you. Here are the rules. It’s a tie-break to seven, but every two points we’re going to roll the dice. The number gives us each a difficulty modifier. Telling us how we have to play the next two points.” If we take a look at those numbers, 1 depicts wrong hand, 2- serve & volley, 3- backcourt is lava, 4- forehands only, 5- backhands only, and 6 means ‘tennis as normal’.

Having said that, both of them pulled their socks to enter the battlefield, and Tommy Paul rolled 1 in his first chance while Navarro rolled 2. Paul won the first round and then again in the second round, Paul rolled 3, and Navarro got 5 this time. So 3 means ‘Back Court is Lava’. What does this mean, though? Paul explained, “This one is a bit complicated but kind of fun. Basically, you can’t hit the ball deep. Every shot has to land inside the opponent’s service box. If you hit anything beyond the service box, it’s out, and you lose the point.” Even this time, the ATP star had the last laugh and Navarro expressed her disappointment to this saying, “That’s so cheap (indicating his drop shot to finish the point), Tommy! I thought he was a gentleman, He figured it out. I thought he was going to make me just keep on running.“

The match ended in favor of Tommy Paul at 8-6. After this match, Paul said, “That’s a big win. Biggest win of the week so far.” Emma Navarro, on the other hand, stated, “I can’t believe I lost to Tommy.“

These two tennis stars share a very strong camaraderie. For example, in March this year, during the Indian Wells tournament, the American tennis players, including Emma Navarro, Ben Shelton, and a few others, were spotted engaging in a funny Q&A session. The question was: “Which tennis player from the @atptour and @wta would you pick to be stranded in the desert with?” In reply to this, Navarro had said, “I’ll be stuck in the desert with Tommy. He’s kind of like a nature boy. He could probably find us some food and maybe build a shelter.” Even Ben Shelton and Taylor Fritz gave a nod to the WTA star at that time. So, Tommy Paul is the man to take them out of the trouble, but can he keep flying the American flag high in Rome?

Tommy Paul sets himself up for a clash against Hubert Hurkacz

Previously, Tommy Paul had never managed to secure a victory against Australia’s Alex de Minaur in his career. He had a record of 0-5 against the Aussie. So, before entering the R16 clash at the 2025 Italian Open, Paul said, “This is a match I’m super motivated for (because) I want to get my first win against him. He’s been owning me on the Pro Tour. We’ve had some wars… some amazing matches, I’ve had so many opportunities against him. I haven’t gotten him so hopefully this is the one..It’ll be a little revenge match.”

In this match, Paul not only managed to take his revenge on De Minaur by defeating him by a 7-5,6-3 margin, but he has now also reached the QFs of the Italian Open for the second time in a row. This is his sixth Masters QF, and if we take a look at his numbers, he has a win-loss record of 20-7 this season, with 7-2 on clay. Next up for him is the former world number 6, Hubert Hurkacz.

Interestingly, Paul has a 2-1 record against the Polish star, and guess what? Their latest meeting came in the QF of the 2024 Italian Open, where Paul defeated Hurkacz by 7-5,3-6,6-3. With that win, he had then reached his first ATP Masters 1000 SF on clay. Talking about his game plan later on, he said, “My game plan coming in was, ‘I’ve got to get into as many of his service games as possible’, to try and get a couple of breaks. From that aspect, I did very well today, but in my next match I’m probably going to focus on holding serve a little bit more!“

Can he repeat the same tactics and secure his place in yet another SF of the Italian Open? Share your thoughts in the comment box.