Emma Navarro keeps it close to the vest in her press conferences. The rising 23-year-old, who dethroned defending champion Coco Gauff to reach her first US Open quarterfinal, speaks about her tennis with the calculated phrasing of a political science professor.
But her locker room exchanges, according to her compatriots, tend to be a bit more revealing about Navarro's true nature.
“She's a riot,” fellow US Open quarterfinalist Jessica Pegula told reporters on Monday in New York with a wry smile. “Don't let her fool you.”
Gauff concurs.
“As a person she's a super nice girl,” the 20-year-old American says. “I've gotten to know her over the Olympics, and she's super funny. She's kind of the opposite of how she is on court. She has a lot of personality, but she doesn't show it as much to you guys.”
Perhaps the world will one day be privy to the comical stylings of the rising American, but for now tennis fans will have to be content with her eye-catching ground game and 11 out of 10 fitness, tools she has used to chart a path to consecutive major quarterfinals in the last three months.
Navarro may not be willing to completely let her guard down in the public eye, but she has no problem enchanting tennis fans with the alluring blend of sheer physicality and fine-tuned tactics that have made her a force on the WTA Tour in 2024.
“She's a great athlete,” Pegula says. “She's mentally stable, and she's only going to get better. I feel like she's going to be a threat for the next ten years or however long she plays to definitely be a slam contender.”
There’s so much to like about Navarro’s game it’s hard to pick just one thing. She’s extremely solid off of both wings. She protects her serve well and has cultivated a world-class break game, winning 20 of 42 return games through four rounds at this year’s US Open. There are no weaknesses, and as Navarro has gained confidence in her second full season on tour, it shows in her results.
But there was a time where Navarro, an NCAA women’s singles champion at the University of Virginia in 2021, wasn’t sure that she could cut it on the main tour. Those days are gone.
“She's a great athlete. She's mentally stable, and she's only going to get better."
“When I first left college, my coach and I kind of made a two-year contract, that I would fully commit myself to playing professional tennis for two years and then kind of just reassess after that,” she told reporters on Sunday. “I think I hit the two-year mark this June, and we didn't even acknowledge it or talk about it. So [I] definitely have surpassed my expectations for sure. I hope to just keep getting better.”
Navarro finished 2022 ranked No. 143 in the world. It’s a testament to her game and her maturity that she has risen so quickly, to her current perch, at No.12. She kicked off her 2024 by winning her first WTA title in Hobart, and two months later stunned two-time Grand Slam champion Aryna Sabalenka at Indian Wells to reach her maiden WTA 1000 quarterfinal. She has earned eight Top 20 wins on the season (after entering the year with just two to her name) and reached second week at Roland Garros before making back-to-back quarterfinals at Wimbledon and here at the US Open.
Her game has grown by leaps and bounds in a short time, and she’s just started to become the player she wants to be.
“I think I'm totally different definitely as a player,” she said on Monday, after battling past Gauff in three tense sets. “I think I just play more aggressive. Like every part of my game has improved. And, also, I just play with more confidence and more belief.”
Pegula, who joins Navarro as one of the two American women in the quarterfinals in Flushing Meadows, has seen Navarro’s rise first hand.
“I felt like once I saw her play at the beginning of the year and I felt like she just improved so much,” she said. “I was, like, ‘Wow, she's actually going to be like a serious threat.’ I think mentally she's shown that she's super tough and she doesn't let a lot of things bother her.”
2003 US Open men’s singles champion Andy Roddick says Navarro looks more and more like a finished product with every passing week.
“She has been building and building,” he said on his Served with Andy Roddick podcast this week. “She feels built now.”
Now that she’s knocked out the defending champion in her first match in Arthur Ashe Stadium, Navarro will take on Spain’s Paula Badosa for a shot at her first Grand Slam semifinal on Tuesday at the Open.
It’s a massive moment for the 23-year-old, but one she believes she can handle.
“I believe that I can play tennis with the best players in the world,” she said. “I deserve to be on this stage, I belong in these rounds of Grand Slams and I can make deep runs.”
