For Emma Navarro, the grass-court season was a mix of promise and disappointment. She beat world No. 8 Iga Swiatek along the way and reached the Nottingham Open final, only to fall to Marie Bouzkova there, then couldn’t replicate that form at the Bad Homburg Open or SW19. That left her with time to prepare for the North American hard-court swing, and on Monday, despite an opening win at the Mubadala DC Open that leveled her career head-to-head with Sofia Kenin at 1-1, Navarro admitted she still wasn’t satisfied with her own level.

“Honestly, not that close,” Navarro said in her post-match interview with Tennis Channel. “I think maybe it’s a little bit of a blessing and a curse that I never feel that close,” she added.

The 25-year-old explained that her mindset has always pushed her to aim higher. “I always feel like there’s so many more things to get better at. In my head, I want to be perfect at every single thing on a tennis court. Obviously, that’s that could be a reach, but that’s kind of the goal. And if I feel like I’m not there yet, then I’m pretty far away,” she said.

The comment tracked with how the match actually played out. Navarro, once ranked as high as world No. 8, won the first set 6-0 but had to survive an early scare, saving five break points in a tense, 11-minute opening game. Kenin found her footing in the second set, storming back from 0-3 down to make a real match of it, before Navarro closed it out with two consecutive breaks to seal a 6-0, 7-5 win in 1 hour and 39 minutes. It wasn’t the one-sided finish the scoreline over the full match might suggest.

Her season, though, did not begin on a positive note. A series of disappointing defeats caused her ranking to slip. Among the events she missed were the Miami Open, the Charleston Open, the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix, and the Madrid Open.

Even after withdrawing from the home event at Charleston, she said,

“Unfortunately, I have been dealing with some health struggles over the past year or so that I am continuing to sort out.”

After spending several weeks away, she returned at the Italian Open in Rome but suffered an early exit. She quickly turned things around at the Internationaux de Strasbourg with an outstanding run, defeating Victoria Mboko in the final to capture her third tour-level title and end a 15-month title drought.

Navarro defeated Victoria Mboko in the final of the WTA 500 event to capture her 3rd tour-level title, ending her 15-month title drought. Yet at the French Open, she exited in the second round after being defeated by another American, Iva Jovic. Now, as Navarro moves into the next round in the capital city, another difficult challenge awaits her.

Emma Navarro set to face Elisabetta Cocciaretto at DC Open

Navarro’s results on hard courts this season have been mixed. She arrived at the WTA 500 event with a 4-4 record on the surface this year, including a few early-round defeats to lower-ranked opponents such as Sonay Kartal and Lulu Sun.

Now the current world No. 26 turns her attention to the second round of the DC Open, where she’ll face 25-year-old Italian Elisabetta Cocciaretto. The two have met three times before, with Cocciaretto holding a 2-1 edge, including a straight-sets win over Navarro just this past May in Rome. A place in the quarterfinals is on the line.

If she gets past Cocciaretto, Navarro will face another major test, the winner of the match between third seed Naomi Osaka and Ashlyn Krueger, making her path through the draw considerably harder from here.

Still, given how her season has swung between real highs and frustrating stretches, whether Navarro can string together the kind of run that finally satisfies her own standards is something only the next few rounds in Washington will answer.