Peter Ayers says that from the very moment he first saw Emma Navarro hit a tennis ball, he knew he was dealing with something special.
“I had never seen an eyes-and-hands connection like that,” he told the gathered media on Tuesday at the 2024 US Open after his pupil of nearly a decade broke through to her first major semifinal. “I remember tossing balls the first time I was out there with her, and [noticing] how good a connection it was. Also, her willingness to just do ball after ball after ball.”
That talent and work ethic Ayers first took notice of would eventually lead Navarro to the University of Virginia and the 2022 NCAA singles title. But the New York-born baseliner, the daughter of billionaire businessman Ben Navarro, who counts the Credit One Charleston Open and the Cincinnati Open among his holdings, is on a far bigger stage now. With a 6-2, 7-5 dismissal of Spaniard Paula Badosa, she is only the sixth player in the last 40 years to reach the US Open semis without a previous main-draw win in Flushing Meadows.
The athleticism has been there all along. But what makes Navarro’s run here even more impressive is the veteran-like cool with which she has been carrying herself on the courts of the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center. For someone who—until dethroning defending champion Coco Gauff in the Round of 16—had never played a match in Arthur Ashe Stadium, she sure acts like she’s been here before.
“Emma has always been kind of an incremental achiever, and I just think the value of all the experiences that she has gone through have just kind of gradually pushed her forward,” said Ayers, who himself played on the collegiate level at Duke.
And that composure?
“That’s been there from the first time I ever laid eyes on her,” he said. “She feels it on the inside. She’s always had this wonderful ability to have an amazing poker face and this sense of calm that she projects outwardly.”
Ayers says their process is pretty simple: Each day, they try to get better, focusing on something specific that they can improve incrementally. Always striving to push ahead.
“That’s kind of the bedrock of our philosophy,” he explained. “That’s what we’ve been doing day after day after day, year after year after year. It’s just been a steady process of trying to look at, ‘Okay, what’s the most relevant thing in the journey now to become a little bit better today?’ That’s how we go about it, and that’s what’s led us to this place. I don’t think she’s anywhere near finished growing as a player, and we’ll stick with it.”
Even more than wins and titles, Ayers says he’s most proud of the way Navarro carries herself both on and off the court.
“To me, she plays with a competitive grace that I think is somewhat lost in not just our sport but just in sports in general,” he said. “I think she’s so incredibly respectful of the game. She’s so incredibly respectful of the person on the other side of the net. She’s just so graceful in how she goes about doing what she does. Some of that is how beautifully she moves around the court and some of the shots she hits. But it’s just also in how she carries herself. I think that’s truly special, especially in an age where a lot what you see out there isn’t necessarily that. It doesn’t get as many clicks as some of the other antics that can go on in the competitive arena.”
The 13th seed is now in for the biggest challenge of her career, a final-four matchup with the zoning No. 2 seed Aryna Sabalenka, in the midst of a 10-match winning streak that includes the WTA 1000 title in Cincinnati. Of course, these days, nearly every new matchup seems to be another career-making opportunity for the 23-year-old American.
“I think I’ve gone through periods of time where I’m surprised at where I’m at, but also when I look back and think about, the methodical approach to tennis that I’ve taken, when I look at my physical ability and my mental ability in this sport, it’s not surprising,” she said. “I feel just more comfortable now with having good results and having success. I’ve had periods of both surprise and not surprise. But right now, I think I’m ready to be in this position and that's probably a result of just this sort of slow, gradual, methodical approach I have taken to tennis and improving myself.”
