BY JAMES BECK
Emma Navarro has come a long way in a short time.
It seems like only yesterday that she was teaming with Chloe Beck for the first time to win the Sweet 16 in 14 and under doubles in 2015 at Delray Beach, Fla.
The wins haven’t stopped rolling in since.
Navarro now is in the semifinals of a Grand Slam professional tournament, the world-renown U.S. Open. She just keeps getting better in the big ones. From round three, to round of 16, to the quarterfinals, to the semifinals at 2024’s Grand Slams.
Did dad Ben Navarro play a role?
It’s no joke. Emma Navarro is the real thing.
She is two wins away from winning a Grand Slam title.
An amazing story, told by Navarro’s racket.
The real secret to the success might be the day Ben Navarro decided to purchase a tennis complex for his children that they could play on and say, “This is our court.”
The Players Club in Mount Pleasant, S.C., was already an excellent facility that already had held pro events under noted Bollettieri Academy pro Fritz Nau and others. The just retired WTA Tour pro Shelby Rogers, a native of Mount Pleasant, could also often be seen at the facility.
A pair of wins to greatness
Ben Navarro just made the now-named Live To Play Tennis complex even better. It sparkles primarily with its green clay courts, but also has hard courts. LTP Tennis also usually holds a couple of $100K ITF events yearly.
Emma has two brothers and a sister that all loved the courts they could call theirs.
Ben Navarro now owns the WTA’s Credit One Charleston Open as well as the Cincinnati Open ATP/WTA tournament.
Of course, Emma could call any tennis court in Charleston hers with two more wins at Flushing Meadows, and no one would mind.
Headed toward the top ten
The 23-year-old Navarro is currently ranked 12th in the world and heading toward the top 10 after winning five straight matches at the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center.
Navarro appeared to be in trouble in Tuesday’s quarterfinals, even after charging to a dominant 6-2 first-set win over 29-year-old veteran Spaniard Paula Badosa. But Navarro seemed to be thinking the match was hers as Badosa picked up her game in the second set.
Then Badosa didn’t know what hit her as she committed error after error as Navarro breezed through six straight games to finish off a 6-2, 7-5 victory.
Of course, nothing seems to come easy down the stretch of a Grand Slam tournament.
Tough competition ahead
With two-time Australian Open champion Aryna Sabalenka or Olympic champion Zheng Qinwen opposite her in the semifinals, it could be a rocky road ahead for Navarro.
But maybe not. No one seemed to think that she could handle Coco Gauff’s power for a second consecutive time.
Navarro was unquestionably the best female athlete on the Arthur Ashe Stadium court on Sunday afternoon.
Yes, Coco Gauff was on the other side of the net.
Navarro’s great athletic ability
Gauff may be bigger, stronger and more powerful, but in sheer tennis athletic ability, Navarro is tough to top. She proved that in the New York tournament’s round of 16 with a near-dominant 6-3, 4-6, 6-3 victory over Gauff.
Take away the last three games of the second set and Navarro was in near-total control. She matched pace with Gauff with better court coverage, and of course consistency, especially in serving where Gauff tossed up 19 double faults.
It was as if the 12th ranked Navarro was everywhere. She appeared to read almost every move by Gauff. Even on balls Gauff obviously thought she was putting away, Navarro repeatedly harnessed those shots and turned them into winners of her own to an open area of the court.
Gauff was her own enemy
The serve was Gauff’s major enemy. She couldn’t solve that problem. She double-faulted three times each in two different games in the decisive set. Sounds a little like Badosa down the stretch.
Gauff’s world’s No. 3 ranking should take a significant hit as a result of her failure to come close to winning a second straight U.S. Open.
Navarro flies around the court as if she owns the court, keeping the same face and rarely showing emotion. She was a ball machine, but with the power to turn the hardest hit balls by Gauff into her own points.
After watching Navarro’s last two matches, anything appears to be possible for the Charleston star. Even a Grand Slam champion could soon be headed for Charleston.
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James Beck was the 2003 winner of the USTA National Media Award for print media. A 1995 MBA graduate of The Citadel, he can be reached at Jamesbecktennis@gmail.com.
