Emma Navarro has arrived. Not only is she having a breakthrough season, it seems like overnight she has emerged as one of the best women’s tennis players in the world. The 22-year-old Ashley Hall graduate is playing like a seasoned veteran and currently ranked World No. 20.
Navarro is one of the top seeds in this year’s Credit One Charleston Open. She’s the 10th best player in the field and the most talented player to ever come out of Charleston. She’s become a household name and she owes it all to herself.
“It’s not my nature to want to be in the spotlight and have eyes on me, but it’s the position that I’ve put myself in and this is what I’ve worked for my whole life,” Navarro said. “It’s something that comes along with being a good tennis player or athlete.”
If you look at Navarro’s chart of player progression through the years on the WTA Tour website, it reads like a stock skyrocketing on the market. Her career is on a crescendo. In 2018, Navarro was ranked as low as World No. 763. Now, there’s only 19 players ahead of her and she’s showing no signs of complacency.
“I feel like I had been playing at a high level for a while and I felt like I had this level in me,” Navarro said. “To the outside it seems like it happened overnight, but for me it felt like a slow, gradual process.”
Navarro began her 2024 campaign by capturing her maiden WTA title at the Hobart International in Australia in January. But that was just the tip of the iceberg. A couple weeks later Navarro would go on to make a run to the Round of 32 in the Australian Open, her best finish to date in a Grand Slam. Yet Navarro’s hot streak didn’t end there, either.
A couple months later in March, Navarro secured the biggest match victory of her career at Indian Wells, beating World No. 2 Aryna Sabalenka, the Australian Open champion who defended her title by winning back-to-back in 2023 and 2024.
“Getting those results or big wins against some of the best players in the world made me realize that I can play at this level, and I do belong in this position,” Navarro said.
What’s changed? If you ask Navarro, she’ll say not much. She is as humble as she is stoic on the court. Navarro is masterful at concealing her emotions and body language in the heat of the moment.
If you ask her coach Peter Ayers, a member of the coaching staff at LTP Academy and a former All-American tennis player at Duke University, he’s not surprised by Navarro’s elevated play. Afterall, he’s had a front row seat to her transformation as a player and a person on and off the court.
“She’s leaving the court a little bit better each day and it’s really gratifying to watch her do that,” Ayers said.
Ayers noted that Navarro’s aggressiveness has improved tremendously, along with her footwork and movement. She’s constantly refining her shot techniques with her serve, forehand and backhand and she’s added more variation to her game including different shot shapes and spins. Overall, her use of the court and where she hits the ball have become more knowledgeable.
Ayers teaches and preaches to “be great at the little things,” with a focus on athletic preparation and the importance of a player’s first move. He commented that Navarro is extremely fit and well-conditioned but is equally sharp mentally.
“One of the things I love about her is the way she takes on adversity,” Ayers said. “I think to a certain degree she revels in meeting those moments, she doesn’t run from them.”
Most importantly, Navarro knows that she’s earned the right of passage to be on the biggest stages competing against the best in the game. She’s now part of that conversation. She’s self-made.
“Emma truly owns her tennis. This is her journey, it’s her thing and she’s doing it for herself,” Ayers added.
By Zach Giroux