Emma Navarro despises the “label.”
She doesn’t think it’s reflective of her childhood, of how hard she still had to work to get to this point as the No. 10-ranked women’s tennis player in the world and a rising star in the sport.
When Navarro, 24, was asked by Tatler ahead of Wimbledon about whether she was referred to as the “billionaire’s daughter” — with her father, Ben Navarro, a billionaire as the founder and CEO of Sherman Financial Group — at tournaments, she pushed back and said she doesn’t “really like” that description.
“I don’t read anything,” Navarro, who won the NCAA singles championship at Virginia in 2021, told the magazine. “I don’t read the comments, the articles, any of that stuff. I don’t know what the fans are saying. There will be headlines and they kind of mention that [her father’s billionaire status] which is fine, but I didn’t grow up being handed things.
“We grew up in a sort of traditional way. We’d get up at 6 a.m. on a Saturday morning and go play tennis. … growing up it was a priority that we learnt toughness and we learnt work ethic and how to be intentional and purposeful and live productive lives so I don’t love being referred to as whoever with however much money’s daughter. It’s a label I don’t really like.”
Ben Navarro, 62, has a net worth of $4.8 billion, and he founded Sherman Financial Group in 1998, according to Forbes.
He attempted to buy the Panthers in 2018 but lost to David Tepper, the outlet added on Navarro’s profile.
Jessica Pegula, the No. 3-ranked women’s tennis player, has also addressed the question of wealth and the perceived influence it has played, too — with her father, Terry Pegula, owning the Bills and Sabres with a net worth of $7.6 billion, according to Forbes.
“It’s that people think I have a butler, that I get chauffeured around. I have a private limo, that I fly private everywhere … I’m definitely not like that,” Pegula said in September 2024 following a U.S. Open win. “People can think what they want. I don’t know. I just think it’s kind of funny.”
Navarro, a New York City native, pieced together the best Grand Slam cycle of her career in 2024, making the quarterfinals at Wimbledon and advancing to the U.S. Open semifinals before falling to then-No. 2 Aryna Sabalenka.
She then made it to the quarterfinals of the Australian Open before an early exit at the French Open, and Thursday, she defeated Veronika Kudermetova in straight sets to advance to the third round of Wimbledon — where Navarro will face No. 17-ranked Barbora Krejčíková on Saturday.