Charleston tennis phenom Emma Navarro is known for her stone-cold seriousness and stoic demeanor on the court. But off the court she has recently begun displaying a more jovial side to her personality on social media.
At the Credit One Charleston Open Media Day on March 31, the WTA 2024 Player of the Year talked about her social media presence and how she finds the balance between both worlds during an age where players are connecting and building a following online and inviting tennis fans into their private lives.
So how does she manage it? Life as a tennis player is hectic and busy, but Navarro gets by with a little help from her team.
“That’s her fault right there,” quipped Navarro, pointing to Chanel Bell, social media manager and owner of FWRD Social. “She’s always getting me on camera. And she makes me look a bit cooler than I am, I guess.”
All joking aside, Navarro has been enjoying the opportunity to express herself outside of the daily grind on the pro tennis tour and its demands. Whether it’s showing off her dance moves, clowning around or playing a game of ping pong with a lucky young fan, Navarro is truly embracing her new extrovert role off the court.
“Yeah, no it’s been kind of fun just to share my personality a little bit with the people,” said Navarro. “You know most of the time they see me at work, very focused, very intense, so it’s nice to just share a little bit more of my off-court personality.”
Navarro was asked specifically about a photo from the Summer Olympic Games in Paris in 2024 while representing Team USA in which she posted a selfie with NBA legend Lebron James and fellow tennis stars Jessica Pegula and Danielle Collins that went viral captioned, “Smiling through it all! Can’t believe this is my life.”
“Well, looking back, I didn’t actually mean that. I could believe that was my life,” quipped Navarro. “Lebron had posted something on Instagram and he was like taking a selfie from that angle and that was his caption. So I was kind of poking a little bit of fun at Lebron, but also I totally meant it, it was so surreal.”
In March, Navarro won her first-ever WTA 500 tournament at Merida, marking her second victory since turning pro in 2022. She hopes to ride off that momentum and reach another milestone this week — bring home the hardware at her hometown tournament.
By Colin McCandless