“I believe that I can play tennis with the best players in the world. I deserve to be on this stage and, yeah, I belong in these rounds of Grand Slams and I can make deep runs,” said a passionate Emma Navarro, back in September, after making it to her first Grand Slam SF round, following her emphatic victory over defending champion Coco Gauff at the US Open. The current World No.8 has made great strides in the professional tennis scene since her journey began two years ago. Now, it seems she’s here to stay for a long time with an undying zeal to improve each season. It becomes evident from a renowned journalist’s remarks on the 23-year-old American.

Navarro’s rapid rise can be understood from her solid 2024 season. She won just one title this year, at the WTA 125K in Paris in May. But her overall singles record is commendable. Out of her 78 matches in the season gone by, Emma won 54 of them. In short, she got an impressive win percentage of 69.23. Moreover, she emerged as a promising face of tennis at the Grand Slam level. Firstly, she managed to enter Wimbledon’s QF stage after edging out Coco Gauff in the Round of 16. Then at the Flushing Meadows, the American made it to the SF after beating Spain’s Paula Badosa in a comfortable QF battle. Prior to that, she had defeated Coco, once again, during the Round of 16.

Looking at her improvements as a young player, prominent journalist Jon Wertheim believes she’s on the right path. And that she’s extremely passionate when it comes to becoming a great tennis pro.

In an episode of the Served Podcast with Andy Roddick, dated December 24, Wertheim revealed a conversation he had with her a few days back. That’s when he got the idea about her commitment to the sport. “I’ll give you a little glimpse. We spoke a few days ago when she was sort of telling me her schedule and she’s heading down to Australia on Christmas Eve, on December 24th. And I sort of said, you do the lead in question.” he said.

“This is tennis’s crazy calendar. And she said, ‘You know what? We’ll do Christmas Eve on the 23rd and pretend it’s Christmas Eve. And I’ll just reverse, you know, I’ll just go with the appointed time and I feel like I won’t miss anything.’ And I thought that was such a window into her mentality. This is someone whose default position is positive,” he added.

Jon revealed that she’s “very organized on the court, but also very positive on the court.” He made it clear that Emma Navarro is serious about the racket sport. “I don’t think anyone saw this top 10 showing, but she did, and she’s won a lot of matches. This is not a flashy player. She plays tennis. She does not perform it. This is someone just fully committed to incremental improvement, and the increments have been coming fast and furious,” he concluded.

While her hard work has been key to her success, Emma also gives full credit to her father for where she is today.

When Emma Navarro admired her billionaire father Ben’s role in her tennis endeavors

Following her victory over Paula Badosa in the QF at the Flushing Meadows, Emma couldn’t control her emotions. During a post-match interview, she expressed gratitude towards her father Ben for pushing her to pursue tennis professionally. “I want to say ‘thanks’ to my dad because he saw a vision from when I was really young,” she said.

Later, another interviewer asked her, “You thanked your dad after the match. Tennis is an expensive sport. How much did the family resources help you earlier?”

To this, Emma Navarro replied, “I had access to courts from a young age and I was able to practice with other kids.” She mentioned how the luxuries at her disposal helped her to pursue her dreams. And it’s all because of her father.

Fun fact: For the unversed, Ben is an owner of the highly coveted Cincinnati Open. His net worth, as of 2024, is estimated to be $1.5 billion.

“I had coaches that would help me out for sure, but I think a lot of kids have access to that, especially in the US and I think it is cool that our sport is growing and more and more kids do have resources like that. So for sure, it played a role in allowing me to be where I am at now, and I am super grateful that I did have those resources as a kid,” Navarro concluded.

Emma’s journey is truly one to marvel at. Alongside her father’s support, her own dedication has elevated her among the top names in the world. She will look to continue performing at the highest level in 2025 as well. At the first major of the new season in Australia, the young American would like to improve her record. In 2024, she couldn’t move past the third round. But will she bounce back this time?