BY JAMES BECK
Is Emma Navarro possibly the most complete player in women’s tennis?
It’s beginning to look like that’s a possibility. It might take a few months or a year or so to secure that image.
But Emma Navarro has been a fast mover among the WTA pros since joining them just over two years ago.
NAVARRO SHINES ALL OVER THE COURT
Why is Navarro possibly the tour’s most complete player? All you have to do to consider that possibility is to look at her dominance of Coco Gauff in a straight-set victory over the world’s No. 2 player in Wimbledon’s round of 16.
Navarro is quick, talented and fast, but not lightning fast. She just covers the court better than most of the top players. It’s all about her technique and movement on the court. She covers the court like a blanket.
And she goes for winners most of the time when she arrives on the ball. It was difficult for even the power-hitting Gauff to hit a winner against Navarro.
TOTAL PRECISION IS HER GAME
Navarro hits backhands and forehands with total precision and power, seldom committing errors. She hits great drop shots as if she’s been taking lessons from Carlos Alcaraz.
An opponent has to be sure not to put the ball in the air going for an easy winner. Navarro hits solid overheads with power, seldom missing one.
Against Gauff, Navarro even leaped in the air going away from the net and delivered an impressive backwards volley.
About the only place Navarro can improve might be her serve, although she seldom double-faults and has solid placement. Bigger serves might help her to win points quicker, but her serve was working just fine against Gauff as she actually had a better day serving than the powerful Gauff.
NAVARRO’S THINKING GAME
Navarro is a thinking star. Her secret against Gauff was mixing up her serves and keeping Gauff off balance most of the match.
There doesn’t seem to be any one area of Navarro’s game that’s vulnerable.
I can remember all the years when Navarro was a standout junior, actually winning a Junior French Open doubles title with long-time partner Chloe Beck in 2019, and also being a singles finalist at that event.
At the time, I covered tennis for the Charleston newspaper, and I depended heavily on Navarro’s thorough reports on her out-of-town matches. As for her local matches at her father’s LTP Tennis facility in Mount Pleasant, S.C., I didn’t need to interview Navarro. She provided her own critiques of her matches for my recorder. I readily accepted them.
A STAR ON THE RISE
Navarro looked like a star of the future even then. And she’s been a rising star since.
Since the start of 2023, she has risen 126 places in the WTA rankings to No. 17 in the world, and the 23-year-old now owns a live ranking of No. 14 as a result of her quarterfinal berth at Wimbledon.
Of course, she could climb much higher with the big ranking points that could be hers in the next week.
After Navarro’s 6-4, 6-3 win over Gauff in 74 minutes in Sunday’s round of 16 and the collapse of eight of the world’s top 10 players, Navarro appears to have as much of a chance to win a Wimbledon title as anyone left in the women’s draw.
Current No. 4 Elena Rybakina and No. 7 Jasmine Paolini are the only top 10 women left at Wimbledon, and Paolini will be Navarro’s quarterfinal opponent.
If Navarro’s stardom continues to sparkle as it did against former Grand Slam winners Gauff and Naomi Osaka, the rest of Wimbledon could be one big shining moment for Emma Navarro.
She’s a star now!
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James Beck was the 2003 winner of the USTA National Media Award for print media. A 1995 MBA graduate of The Citadel, he can be reached at Jamesbecktennis@gmail.com.
