Emma Navarro aimed fire at China’s Zheng Qinwen after her 2024 Olympics defeat on Tuesday, claiming she didn’t respect her opponent after crashing out in the third round of the women’s tennis singles. The American couldn’t take advantage of a match point before losing in three sets in Paris.

Navarro took the first set 7-6, winning 9-7 in a tiebreak, before leading 5-3 in the second and looking certain to progress to the quarter-finals.

But Qinwen – roared on by passionate Chinese fans in attendance on a jam-packed Court Seven – showed immense resilience to fight back and claim the second set 7-6 with a 7-4 tiebreak win.

The world No. 7 then soared to a 6-1 victory in the deciding set to book a quarter-final clash against three-time Grand Slam champion Angelique Kerber, who will retire after the Paris Games.

Temperatures were high on the Roland Garros clay – hitting the mid-thirties – and tensions also rose after the three-hour match through Navarro’s comments.

The 23-year-old landed a jab on Qinwen, stating that she didn’t respect her opponent for how she believes the Chinese star carries herself.

“I just told her I didn’t respect her as a competitor. I think she goes about things in a pretty cut-throat way,” Navarro explained.

“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.”

Qinwen later reacted to what Navarro told her after their clash, insisting she didn’t view her comments as an attack, given the circumstances.

She said: “She told me she doesn’t know how I have a lot of fans. It looks like she’s not happy with my behaviour towards her.

“If she’s not happy about my behaviour, 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. I will not consider it an attack because she lost the match.”

Fellow American Danielle Collins has reached the quarter-finals, where she will face the winner of world No. 1 Iga Swiatek of Poland vs China’s Wang Xiyu.

American No. 1 Coco Gauff also suffered third-round heartbreak, falling to a straight sets defeat to Croatia’s Donna Vekic, during which she broke down in tears during a rift with the umpire.