The 2025 China Open is no less than a rollercoaster of emotions for the tennis community. Each match continues to offer a breathtaking experience and unexpected ending, with the latest Beijing WTA 1000 round of 32 clash between Lois Boisson and Emma Navarro on Sunday being no exception. This one, however, had quite an unfortunate ending as the Frenchwoman was forced to leave the court in the middle of the game, giving the American tennis star a ticket to the next round.

Lois Boisson had already given a sign of the trouble that she was carrying into the match as she stepped onto Lotus Court with her left thigh already heavily strapped. Despite her efforts to start strongly, she struggled to keep up with Emma Navarro’s consistency and clean hitting. The opening set slipped away 2-6, with the Frenchwoman even forced to call a medical timeout in a desperate attempt to push through the pain.

As the second set began, Boisson tried to continue, determined to mount a comeback. But with Navarro immediately breaking to take a 0-1 lead, the 22-year-old’s body could no longer hold up. Tearful and visibly in pain, she was left with no choice but to retire, handing Navarro an unfortunate yet straightforward passage into the next round.

It had been quite a journey for Lois Boisson, who first overcame Hungary’s Dalma Gálfi 7-6(6), 5-7, 6-2 after an exhausting three-hour, 24-minute slugfest at Brad Dewett. In the round of 64, she then faced Liudmila Samsonova, defeating the Russian 6-3, 6-4 to secure her fourth career Top-30 win—her first since Roland Garros and her first on hard courts—before being forced to retire in the third round.

On the other hand, Emma Navarro entered this round by directly playing the round of 64 clash against Elena-Gabriela Ruse, defeating the Romanian star 6-3, 7(7)-6(0). Moving forward, the 24-year-old would now be facing Poland’s Iga Świątek. Indeed, the game would be worth watching as either star would be looking to secure their place in the next one!

Emma Navarro faces a tough test after a lucky Lois Boisson escape!

Simply put, the test is going to be hard for Emma Navarro, considering the form Iga Swiatek is in. Talk about taking the French Open semifinal defeat to heart as the Polish star bounced back with a victory in Wimbledon and the Cincinnati Masters, reclaiming a top-two seeding behind Aryna Sabalenka. No wonder she enters Beijing as one of the clear favorites, even opened her China Open campaign with a commanding 6-0, 6-3 win over Yuan Yue.

That victory pushed Swiatek to 122 wins from her first 150 WTA-1000 matches, second only to Serena Williams’ 131. Her 122–28 record translates to an 81.33% win rate. While the former American tennis star achieved her numbers across Tier 1 and Premier events before the WTA-1000 format, Swiatek has done so entirely under the revamped system, underlining her dominance in the modern era. Not to mention, the 24-year-old is also close to challenging Coco Gauff’s No. 1 spot.

The Yuan Yue win also marked her 25th WTA-1000 victory of 2025, following 27 wins in 2023 and 30 in 2024. She is now the first woman since the WTA-1000 format was introduced in 2009 to win 25+ matches in three consecutive seasons, and the first ever to do it across three separate campaigns. As for her second round clash, she secured an easy win over Camila Osorio, as the Colombian star retired after a 6-0 score in the first round.

Whatever the case may be, these milestones only cement Iga Swiatek’s case ahead of her crucial match against Emma Navarro as well as for the later stages of the tournament. It would be interesting to see which of them progresses forward.