"I just played bad today," said Swiatek. "I managed to, like, work on it in the second set. Then in third, probably the mistakes I did from the beginning of the match kind of came back. Yeah, like, I didn't really, I don't know, fix the shots that I played wrong or something. I kind of knew what I'm doing wrong. I don't know, I was stuck in doing it wrong rather than actually solving it.
"So yeah, for sure I was a bit more nervous because of that and maybe too much emotions, as well. I will try to, like, keep it more cool next time so I have more space in my head to problem solve. Honestly, I didn't feel like anything was working. That's why I got more and more, like, nervous."
The Pole lost just three games to Navarro in their last meeting earlier this year in the quarterfinals of Melbourne, and Navarro has largely struggled on court since, dropping out of the Top 10 from a career-high ranking of No. 8.
Still, it was Navarro who had the upper hand on Swiatek for most of their China Open clash, taking a set and a break lead before Swiatek was able to get back into the match.
With the match tied at one set apiece, the former world No. 1 looked on course to complete the comeback, but Navarro found another gear to reel off the final six games of the match and book her spot in the last eight.
Awaiting her there will be No. 5 seed Jessica Pegula, who outlasted No. 23 seed Marta Kostyuk in the final fourth-round match of the week.
