This month, Emma Navarro returns to Credit One Charleston Open as the hometown favorite.
Navarro entered last year’s Credit One (left) with strong momentum, having made it to the fourth round of the 2025 Australian Open (right). After a first-round exit at this year’s first major, she’ll be looking for a comeback on Daniel Island.
A young Emma in her hiking boots at the Hazel Parker Playground tennis courts on East Bay Street, where she first began hitting balls with her family. “My dad liked tennis because it was something we could all play together,” she says.
Navarro returned to the French Open as a WTA professional in 2023.
“I’ve never met a kid with such determination,” says Navarro’s former teacher Rene Miles (between Navarro and Charlestonian Chloe Beck) after they won the French Open Junior Doubles championship in 2019. I thought of the nights they nestled their exhausted heads on hotel pillows and dreamed of red clay. A little girl’s dream carried in a tennis bag along with rackets and towels, sneakers and water bottles. For these two American girls, the dream came true,” Miles wrote in a note to Emma’s parents after watching the championship match.
A 2021 NCAA Championship title at UVA kick-started Navarro’s pivot to the pro tour.
Navarro represented the USA at the 2024 summer Olympics in Paris, along with Desirae Krawczyk, Coco Gauff, and Jessica Pegula.
Chatting with ESPN commentators after a win at the 2024 US Open
Relaxing with her beloved Bernedoodle, Marti
With her biggest fans, mom Kelly, father Ben, sister Meggie, and her physiotherapist’s daughter at the 2024 French Open
Her paternal grandmother, “Grammy,” pictured here at the 2024 US Open, watches all Navarro’s matches.
Winning her second WTA title at the Merida Open in 2025
With Peter Ayers, who has been her trusted coach for a decade.
Arthur Ashe Stadium at the US Open is about as big a stage as there is in professional tennis.
avarro pulled off a decisive straight-set win in the second round over Naomi Osaka on Center Court at Wimbledon 2024
On her way to the semifinals at Wimbledon 2024, the typically non-expressive Navarro sends a happy fist pump to her player’s box.
Billie Jean King
Martina Navratilova
Chris Evert
Steffi Graf
Venus & Serena Williams
Naomi Osaka
Jelena Ostapenko
Danielle Collins
With more experience under her belt, Navarro is feeling more and more at ease as a public figure. “I’m pretty much an open book,” she says. “What you see is what you get.”
This month, Navarro returns for Credit One Charleston Open as the hometown favorite
