- 23-year-old American Emma Navarro is the breakout star at this year’s Wimbledon.
- She is the daughter of billionaire businessman Ben Navarro.
- Emma Navarro defeated Grand Slam champion Coco Gauff to reach the Wimbledon quarterfinals.
Wimbledon, the world’s most prestigious Grand Slam tennis tournament, kicked off on July 1st.
It’s famous for attracting many top athletes and billionaire spectators, but there are also many wealthy people on the court.
One of Wimbledon’s breakout stars is Emma Navarro, the 23-year-old daughter of billionaire businessman Ben Navarro. The American has broken into the top 20 in the WTA rankings this season, not just one, but 100 players. two Grand Slam champions Naomi Osaka and Coco Gauff are performing brilliantly at Wimbledon.
She lost in the quarterfinals on Tuesday to 28-year-old Jasmine Paolini, but the tennis world will likely see her again soon as she prepares for her first Olympic Games in Paris in a few weeks.
Here’s everything you need to know about the American heiress who’s taking the tennis world by storm.
Emma Navarro was born in New York City and raised in Charleston, South Carolina.
In April, Navarro told Garden & Gun magazine that Charleston is his “favorite city in the world.”
“I love walking around downtown and looking at the houses and saying good morning and good evening to people,” she added.
Some of her favorite local spots include Sullivan’s Island, Holy City Bagels, Second State Coffee and Sorel’s.
She and her three siblings, older brothers Earl and Owen, and younger sister Meggie, were raised in the area by their parents, Kelly and Ben Navarro.
Her father, Ben Navarro, has an estimated net worth of $1.5 billion, according to Forbes magazine.
Ben Navarro, 61, is the founder and CEO of Sherman Financial Group, which Forbes magazine describes as a “credit card and debt collection empire.”
One of the group’s key assets is lender Credit One, and eagle-eyed fans may have spotted the logo on Emma’s uniform during recent tournaments.
In addition to his banking business, Navarro has purchased more than $350 million in real estate in Charleston since 2021, Forbes reported.
He’s also been an active buyer in the tennis world, with CNN reporting that he bought the 2022 Cincinnati Open tournament for roughly $300 million.
Other tennis-related ventures in his portfolio include the South Carolina-based Live to Play Tennis Club and the Volvo Car Open, the largest women’s tennis tournament in North America according to the WTA (since renamed the Credit One Charleston Open).
In 2019, the United States Tennis Association named the Navarro family South Carolina Tennis Family of the Year.
“Tennis has given so much to our family — as a fan, a father and a businessman,” he told The Post and Courier at the time. “Junior tennis provided a platform for our kids to learn the work ethic, to forge friendships through shared hardships and to learn to deal with disappointment, defeat and sometimes injustice.”
Emma Navarro credits her father with teaching her tennis and shaping her mindset as an athlete.
In 2021, she told Charleston Magazine that her father inspired her to take up tennis.
“My father wanted it to be a sport that the whole family could enjoy,” she says. “I had two older brothers who both played tennis, and as soon as I was old enough and strong enough to pick up a racket, I was on the court with them.”
Since then, he has become a valuable mentor to her.
“My dad was always there for me, coaching me, training me, whatever I needed,” she told Charleston Magazine.
She also expressed gratitude to her mother, Kelly Navarro, calling her “the woman behind the scenes who makes it all happen.”
In an April 2024 interview with Tennis Channel, Emma Navarro credited her father for her mindset as an athlete, calling him “the smartest person I know.”
“He’s taught me a lot about how I should approach things, especially on the court,” she added.
Navarro says she began taking up tennis seriously when she was in elementary school.
During an “Alumni Spotlight” interview with Charleston Day School, Navarro said she began playing tennis seriously in the fourth grade.
“I would wake up at about 5:45am and play tennis for about an hour before going to school,” she said.
“I’d go back to the court after school, go home to finish my homework and go to bed early to get a good night’s sleep before doing it all again the next day.”
In 2019, Navarro was runner-up in the singles final at the French Open Junior Championships.
Navarro, then 18, lost 6-3, 6-2 in the singles final to Leylah Fernandez of Canada.
But she and partner Chloe Beck won the doubles final, beating Alina Chalaeva and Anastasia Tikhonova 6-1, 6-2.
She made her WTA debut that same year at the Charleston Open.
Navarro attended the University of Virginia and was the 2021 NCAA singles champion.
According to the University of Virginia, Navarro becomes just the second player in the program’s history to win the championship.
Her freshman season was marked by numerous accolades, including ITA National Rookie of the Year and ACC Freshman of the Year, and she finished the season with a 25-1 record, the best single season winning percentage in University of Virginia tennis history, according to the university.
Navarro’s sophomore season was also a success: she was named an ITA Singles All-American and an ITA Doubles All-American and was the No. 1 seed at the NCAA Singles Championships, according to the University of Virginia.
Her sister, Meggie Navarro, also plays tennis at the University of Virginia.
She committed to playing full-time professionally in 2022 and won her first WTA title, the Hobart International, in January 2024.
Navarro defeated Elise Mertens 6-1, 4-6, 7-5 to win her first WTA singles title.
Since January, Navarro has played in over 10 tournaments around the world, including the Australian Open, the Symbiotica San Diego Open, the Clarins Cup, where she reached the final, and of course Wimbledon.
Gauff is not the first world No. 2 player that Navarro has defeated.
In March 2024, Navarro defeated Grand Slam champion and then world number two Aryna Sabalenka in the fourth round of the BNP Paribas Open, also known as Indian Wells.
During her time at Indian Wells, she also won the Eisenhower Cup with Ben Shelton.
The Eisenhower Cup is a popular kickoff exhibition at Indian Wells, pitting eight mixed doubles teams against each other.
Other pairs competing in the 2024 tournament include Paula Badosa and Stefanos Tsitsipas, Sloane Stephens and Tommy Paul, Aryna Sabalenka and Taylor Fritz and Ching-Wen Chen and Frances Tiafoe.
According to the WTA, her total prize money in 2024 will exceed $1 million.
Navarro had an impressive performance at Wimbledon, defeating world number two Coco Gauff to reach her first Grand Slam quarterfinal.
In a post-match interview, Navarro told reporter Annabel Croft that she was “really grateful to have been able to step onto Centre Court of such a historic and traditional tournament,” and called the opportunity a “true honour.”
Navarro added that he had “tremendous respect” for Gauff and “what she has accomplished at such a young age.”
Although she was denied a chance to compete in London when she lost in the quarterfinals to Jasmine Paolini, Navarro will represent the United States at the Olympics in just a few weeks.
The Olympic tennis competition will begin on July 27 at Roland Garros stadium, home of the French Open.
The tournament bracket has not yet been announced.
