Emma Navarro claimed her first clay-court WTA singles title by defeating world No. 9 Victoria Mboko 6-0, 5-7, 6-2 in the Internationaux de Strasbourg final on Saturday, May 23, 2026.
The world No. 39 secured her third career WTA Tour singles trophy and her first championship on clay, ending a 15-month title drought since her victory at Merida in February 2025.
According to wtatennis.
com, Navarro struggled with illness and multiple tournament withdrawals earlier this season before winning her second WTA 500 title, having also beaten fellow American Iva Jovic en route to the final.
"It's kind of been a little bit of a rocky year and a half or so, but I think we put in a lot of really good work," Navarro said during the on-court trophy presentation.
The victory marked Navarro's seventh career win over a Top 10 opponent, following her upset of Iga Swiatek in Beijing last year.
She now holds a 3-0 record in WTA singles finals, while Mboko dropped to 2-3 in finals after three defeats in 2026 at Adelaide, Doha, and Strasbourg.
Navarro ended Mboko's nine-match winning streak in three-set contests, as Mboko had held a 9-1 record in deciding sets this year prior to Saturday.
After three previous quarterfinal appearances in Strasbourg, Navarro became the fifth American to win the tournament, pushing her projected ranking up 14 spots to world No. 25.
In the 39-minute opening set, Navarro capitalized on 20 unforced errors from Mboko, who finished with 57 unforced errors overall.
Navarro committed just three unforced errors in the first set, holding serve and returning perfectly to win 6-0.
Mboko rebounded in the second set by using drop shots to level at 4-4, saving a championship point at 5-4, 40-30, before breaking Navarro to take the set 7-5.
Mboko recorded 37 winners to Navarro's 21.
In the final set, Navarro won 12 of her first 13 service points to build a 4-1 lead, while Mboko struggled with six double faults and slipped on the penultimate point.
Both players head to Roland Garros next, where Navarro faces Janice Tjen and Mboko meets Nikola Bartunkova.
