Reality check as China players all out

"It's normal to have ups and downs in this sport. I guess I just have to let it sink in, move on and look forward to the next one," said the 24-year-old left-hander, whose previous best at a major was a third-round appearance at the US Open in 2022.

After exchanging breaks with Navarro, a New York native, in the evenly-contested first two sets, Wang went out flying in the third by breaking first to take a 2-0 lead and built it into 4-2 with an imminent victory in sight as long as she managed to hold serve until the end.

The American favorite, however, stepped it up a notch that Wang failed to match as she staged a comeback by winning four games in a row to upset Wang in two hours and 11 minutes and set up a third-round clash against three-time major finalist Ons Jabeur of Tunisia.

"I was able to find something there at the end," Navarro said. "It was really tough the whole time. I knew it was going to be that way. I was ready to handle it. And I found some good tennis there at the end."

Standing 1.82-meter tall with a strong build, Wang's powerful game, featuring aggressive forehands, suggested a bright future on the professional circuit since she won her first and only WTA singles title in Guangzhou in 2023.

Her progression, however, slowed after a string of early-round exits on the circuit, mostly due to sudden loss of form at key moments, over the past year and a half, dragging her out of the top-100 from her career high No 49 in January 2023.