Emma Navarro is through to the Australian Open quarter finals (Image: Getty)
American star Emma Navarro has reached the quarter-final for the first time.
Yet many fans may not know that Navarro, who has reached the semi-finals of the U.S Open and quarter-finals of , is actually the daughter of a billionaire business mogul. Now, the world no.8 will face off with the highest ranked women’s player in the world, on Wednesday (January 22).
So, before Navarro takes to the court for one of the of her career so far, we take a look at her family’s incredible wealth and the fall-out from some very ill-advised comments.
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Who is Emma Navarro’s family?
Emma’s dad Ben Navarro is a billionaire businessman at the helm of Credit One Bank. He has snapped up a substantial amount of properties in their family hometown of Charleston, South Carolina, including some of the town’s most iconic sites, reports .
Such is his wealth; he also owns two tennis tournaments, The Charleston Open, the oldest professional women’s tennis cup in the country, and Cincinnati’s Western and Southern open, which cost him nearly £240 million.
Her grandfather, Frank Navarro, was an American football star who posed even for, famous US artist, Norman Rockwell’s paiting The Recruit. Her sister, Meggie, is following in Emma’s footsteps and also hopes to make it in the tennis world.
What is Navarro’s net worth?
It’s estimated that Ben has a net worth of around £1.2billion ($1.5billion). To put her family’s incredible earnings into perspective, Navarro is sitting on a fortune that towers over the tennis icons such as (£434m), (£174m) and (£189m).
Navarro is also set to inherit her parents empire which is reported to be worth around £3bn, as per .
Emma’s father Ben Navarro watches on from the stands (Image: Getty)
U.S Open comments controversy
Navarro courted controversy when she thanked her father for sparing her a life of a “9-5” job. Yet many fans took umbrage with the comment.
“I wanna also thank my dad,” she said at the 2024 U.S Open.”I think he saw a vision from the time I was really young. He knew maybe I was a bit ADHD or something to be sitting in a classroom or a 9 to 5. He saw something in me from a young age. So thanks Dad for sending me on this journey.”
In response, one fan took to social media and said: “Her dad is a BILLIONAIRE let’s not act like it was a hardship to send her to boarding school where she could play tennis”, another added: “Thank you papa for using your millions and billions of dollars on me your poor middle-class daughter.”
What did she say after reaching the Australian Open quarter-final?
The American star booked a spot in her third consecutive Grand Slam quarter final after overcoming Russian player Daria Kasatkina. After the match she made some revealing remarks about her mindset, which seemed to hint that she likes to play an aggressive game.
Navarro took issue with Qinwen Zheng at the Olympic Games (Image: Getty)
“My tennis can be alpha, and I’ll let that do its job while I can just be me,” she said. Navarro will now face with the winner of the clash scooping a cool £890k, however the Polish star crushed in the fourth round and will come up against a player in Navarro who has had to battle in three sets in every game she has played in the tournament so far.
Controversy with Zheng Qinwen
Zheng rallied from a set down to beat Navarro at the Paris Olympic Games last summer. However after the match, controversy reigned.
Speaking later on Navarro that Zheng “goes about things in a pretty cut-throat way.” She added: “I just told her I didn’t respect her as a competitor. It’s tough to face an opponent like that, who I really don’t respect.
She later added at the US Open that she felt “disrespected” by Zheng and that their history goes back into their days on the junior courts together.