Sports
Emma Navarro keeps her eye on the ball at the Australian Open as tennis limelight shines brighter
MELBOURNE, Australia — A seriously cold December afternoon in midtown Manhattan, in the lobby of a hotel off Central Park.
A 23-year-old woman looks up from a club chair near an elevator. She’s wearing a baseball cap, diddling around a bit on her phone.
“Hey,” she says.
Take another look. Oh, right, that’s Emma Navarro: U.S. Open semifinalist and a top-10 women’s player after just one full season of top-tier tournaments. She’s chilling ahead of a packed evening of photo ops, press gaggles, and an appearance at the New York Knicks NBA basketball game with a few other tennis players you might have heard of — Carlos Alcaraz, Ben Shelton and Jessica Pegula.
It might be fun. Then again, hanging out in this comfy chair, anonymously watching the bustle of her native city pass by is pretty cool too. There are many reasons why Navarro, who plays Ons Jabeur in the third round of the Australian Open Saturday, pursued tennis. Being a famous person was not one of them.
“The exact opposite,” she said the other day, after a second-round win in Melbourne over Wang Xiyu of China, her second consecutive three-set battle with the outcome up in the air until the final point.
She was at it once again Saturday, when she opened a packed Margaret Court Arena against Ons Jabeur, a three-time Grand Slam finalist and darling of the sport on the way back from a torrid few months with injury. After winning 20 of the first 24 points and surging to a 5-0 lead in the first set, she had to scramble in the third to prevail, saving three break points when serving at 1-2.
When it was over, she credited her parents for taking her and her siblings on six-hour bike rides when they were kids for her third-set prowess. Then she scribbled “me heart 3 sets” on the television camera. She should. She went 19-6 in matches that went the distance last season. On her way off the court, she was straight into signing autographs for fans hanging over the stands. The match was played in the light and shadow of lunchtime in Melbourne and Navarro is not yet fully adjusted to being center stage, day after day after day.
“It’s something that I work really hard at managing and feeling comfortable with being in the spotlight. It’s the opposite of my nature. It feels unnatural,” she said.
This happens in tennis sometimes. Not everything develops in sync. Not everyone who can fire forehands and backhand on a wire seemingly all afternoon is an alpha-dog extrovert, letting their life unfold in a series of Instagram posts and TikTok videos.
And so it is with Navarro, whose tennis life had been an exploration in incrementalism up until the summer of last year. At 18, after a terrific junior career — including a singles final and doubles title at the French Open — she still wasn’t sure she wanted to be a professional tennis player. So she went to the University of Virginia for two years, where she won the NCAA nationwide college-level women’s singles championship.
When she did turn pro, she opted not to pursue wild-card entries that might have been easily attainable, given that her father, Ben, is active in the tennis business and owns the ATP and WTA 1000-level Cincinnati Open. She was fine climbing her way through second-tier tournaments on the ITF and WTA 125 circuits.
GO DEEPER
Win or lose, Emma Navarro wants to hit one more ball
Navarro was outside the top 100 as recently as April 2023. She finished that year as world No. 32, the magic number for a Grand Slam seeding, and won her first WTA Tour tournament in Hobart, Tasmania, the day before the start of the 2024 Australian Open.
Then she played her way into the spotlight. She notched consecutive wins over Coco Gauff, first at Wimbledon and then the U.S. Open, where Gauff, now a friend, was the defending champion. She rose into the top 10 for the first time. And that’s when things started to get a little busy.
Emma Navarro is figuring out how to live in the tennis limelight. (Daniel Pockett / Getty Images)
A flood of interview and appearance requests. A commercial portfolio that now includes deals with Fila, Yonex, Red Bull, Dove, Fanatics, De Bethune and, as of Friday, Mejuri, the high-end jewellery brand that put her in a bespoke photo shoot in Charleston, S.C., in December. Navarro is the company’s first athlete ambassador.
For Serena Williams and Maria Sharapova, Naomi Osaka and Gauff, Iga Swiatek and Zheng Qinwen, something like that is just another day ending with a “Y”. For Navarro, it is, in her own words, “an adjustment”.
The adjustment has a tennis guise too, which might go some distance toward explaining Navarro’s first two matches here this month. Both ended up being tennis escape rooms, first on Rod Laver Arena and then on the site’s second stadium, Margaret Court Arena.
She was down a break of serve in the third set in both matches. Peyton Stearns, another former NCAA champion, had a match point against her in a second-set tiebreak that she couldn’t take. Stearns then served for the match in the third, but couldn’t get over the line.
In both cases, Navarro was in the first match of the day, putting her in the prime-time slot back in the States on ESPN — a slot that Gauff often plays in. Like the fame and exposure that winning and marketing deals carry, big court assignments and prime-time hours bring a not-so-subtle message of expectation.
In both matches, the usually steady Navarro sprayed balls from the middle of the baseline that she had roped back for much of last year, wearing down opponent after opponent. Then she found a way, stringing together her best shots of the afternoon in the handful of deciding points that made the difference twice over.
Against Jabeur, she raced through the first set to 5-0 before Jabeur started playing with the finesse that carried her to the brink of the biggest prizes in the sport. She got back to 5-4. Navarro still took the set.
For nearly her entire tennis life, Navarro had been the girl and then the woman who was thrilled when she showed up at a tournament and learned she was playing on Court 35 in the back of the facility.
“Like, put me in the forest,” she said.
That’s not happening anymore.
“You spend whatever 20 years working at something, mainly behind closed doors, and then all of a sudden you’re a form of entertainment for people,” she said. “People pay to come watch you do what you do. It’s definitely an adjustment.”
Navarro’s coach, Peter Ayers, has been working with her the past eight years. He said his way of getting Navarro used to being a new version of herself during the off-season was to stick with the formula that got her here.
“It’s always been a very methodical approach,” Ayers said during an interview in Melbourne. “We want her to get better without neglecting her bread and butter. It’s always a balance.”
For Navarro, who will never be one of the WTA tour’s giants, that means trying to play bigger and more aggressively within the parameters of her strengths. She is not about to start firing lasers, like some of her peers can do point in, point out.
“I’m very leery of just chasing velocity,” said Ayers.
There are other ways.
Ayers is a baseball guy. One of his favorite pitchers was Greg Maddux, the Atlanta Braves ace of the 1990s. Maddux was far from the hardest thrower, but no one could place balls on the edge of the strike zone as well as he could. “There’s a lot she can do with being more precise,” Ayers said.
Same with her strokes.
Navarro doesn’t have to try to out-hit players such as Aryna Sabalenka or out-spin Swiatek. But she can do a lot of damage if her feet are a step or two closer to the baseline more often, or even inside it.
Ayers, like Navarro, knows that life is different when there is a single digit next to your name on the rankings ladder. It’s been a while since Navarro sneaked up on anyone, as she did on Gauff at dusk in southwest London six months ago. People aren’t afraid of losing to her anymore, Ayers said; when that fear goes away, opponents can play free without worrying about the consequences.
“You’re getting everyone’s best shot,” he said. “The idea is that makes you better.”
Emma Navarro has found herself on her heels in her two Australian Open matches to date. (Daniel Pockett / Getty Images)
Navarro has always been something of problem-solver, whether it’s figuring out an opponent, how she wants to spend her time and who she wants to be as a tennis player. In a sense, what she’s doing now, is figuring out another problem — how to exist as this new version of herself, the version that has been better than all but a handful of players in the women’s game for the past six months.
“The single-digit gets me a little bit,” she said. “It’s just so far outside my realm of expectations for myself.”
There’s been some revelations lately, though, that will hopefully begin to pay some dividends soon. There’s a way to play a certain kind of tennis and still be that woman sitting on a club chair in a hotel lobby, anonymously watching the world go by.
“My tennis can be alpha and I’ll let that do its job and I can just be me,” she said. “If I’m not feeling like myself, I’m probably not going to be playing my best tennis.”
(Top photo: Ng Han Guan / Associated Press)
Patrick Mahomes will take the field for the Kansas City Chiefs on Saturday for the first time as a father of three children.
Mahomes and his wife Brittany welcomed their newest daughter, Golden Raye, on Jan. 12. The quarterback was fortunate enough to have earned a bye week for the weekend of Golden Raye’s arrival, but returned to practice just days later.
Now he is set to face the Houston Texans in the divisional round playoff game. He bears the historic pressure of trying to lead his team to a third straight Super Bowl – something no team has ever done – alongside the personal pressure of fathering another newborn girl.
Patrick Mahomes and wife Brittany leave the field following his Super Bowl win in February. (Matt Slocum)
As the only active quarterback with a realistic shot to contend with Tom Brady in all-time legacy discussion, Mahomes faces a much higher-stakes task than Brady did when he took the field as a father of three for the first time.
Brady welcomed his third child, daughter Vivian Lake, on Dec. 5, 2012 – weeks before any do-or-die playoff action.
But the stakes were still pretty high. And like Mahomes, Brady’s first game after having his third child also came against the Houston Texans.
Brady and the New England Patriots welcomed a Texans team that led the AFC at the time with an 11-1 record into Gilette Stadium for a Monday Night Football showdown. Brady had the Patriots at a 9-3 record, as they looked to chase Houston down for the top spot.
And Brady didn’t miss a beat.
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New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady warms up.(AP Photo/Elise Amendola, FIle)
The former Patriots quarterback had a signature game, throwing for 296 yards with four touchdowns and no interceptions, as New England dominated 42-14. Brady even had a whopping six rushing yards on one carry, which was a good night on the ground for him by his standards in those days.
After the game, Brady relished the win as the perfect ending to the week, as he informed reporters that his then-wife, Giselle Bundchen, was doing well after the birth.
Patrick Mahomes’ wife, Brittany Mahomes, celebrates after defeating the San Francisco 49ers 25-22 in overtime during Super Bowl LVIII at Allegiant Stadium on February 11, 2024 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Harry How/Getty Images)
“She is doing very well,” Brady told reporters of Bundchen after the game. “It’s been a great week, a great way to end it.”
Mahomes has a high bar to live up to. But if he does pull off a similar performance to the one Brady did in 2012, his performance may be even more amplified in how it is recognized.
With a divisional round victory, Mahomes and the Chiefs will be just two wins away from taking home their unprecedented third straight Super Bowl title. The spotlight will be even brighter on Mahomes and his wife on Saturday than it was on Brady in 2012, as Taylor Swift is set to attend, possibly alongside Brittany.
And like Brady’s 2012 game, Saturday may be the last time Mahomes ever plays football right after having a child.
“I’m good with three for right now,” he told reporters on Tuesday when asked whether he would have another child. “We’ll see down the line, maybe, but my goal was always three, so we’ve had three, and we’ll stick there for a while and see if we need to come back and get another one later on.”
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With its rising star defensive coordinator secured, USC filled the final vacancy on its defensive staff Saturday, naming a longtime NFL defensive coordinator with 35 years of experience its linebackers coach.
Rob Ryan spent 17 years as an NFL coordinator, leading defenses in Buffalo, Oakland, Cleveland, New Orleans and Dallas. In Buffalo, where his twin brother Rex Ryan was head coach, Rob Ryan first worked alongside D’Anton Lynn, who is now USC’s defensive coordinator. They also worked together in 2021 in Baltimore, where Ryan was the inside linebackers coach.
But Lynn’s relationship with the Ryan family traces back even further than that. Rex Ryan was head coach of the New York Jets when Lynn signed as an undrafted free agent in 2012. Lynn played just one season with the Jets, but impressed Ryan enough that he hired Lynn as a scout in 2014. When Ryan left for Buffalo in 2015, he brought Lynn along as an assistant.
“[Rex Ryan] kind of got me into the league, and a lot of things that I do, a lot of the way I see the game always comes back to him,” Lynn said earlier this year.
Ryan was linebackers coach with the Bills during Lynn’s second season in Buffalo. When Rex Ryan was fired, Lynn’s father, Anthony, took over as the Bills’ interim coach.
The relationship remained, even as Lynn coached elsewhere. In 2023, upon his hire as UCLA’s defensive coordinator, Ryan told The Times that he believed Lynn was “a superstar.”
While Lynn bounced from that Baltimore staff to that UCLA staff in 2023, Rob Ryan remained in the NFL, serving as a senior defensive assistant with the Raiders. He worked closely with Raiders star defensive end Maxx Crosby through this season, helping guide him to his fourth Pro Bowl nod.
Now Ryan is set to rejoin Lynn in Los Angeles, replacing linebackers coach Matt Entz, who was named Fresno State’s head coach last month. The hire was made less than 24 hours after USC announced that Lynn had signed an extension to remain at USC after Penn State, his alma mater, made a concerted effort this week to hire him away from L.A.
Ryan will take over a linebacker room that’s light on experience, with two regular contributors from last season now off to the NFL. He does inherit star linebacker Eric Gentry, who will return from a season plagued by concussions, as well as an emerging talent in rising sophomore Desman Stephens.
While he spent the last quarter century in the NFL, Ryan does have some experience at the college level.. He was Oklahoma State’s defensive coordinator from 1997-99. Before that, he led the defense at Hutchinson Community College in 1996.
But it’s his NFL experience that stood out to USC head coach Lincoln Riley.
“Rob Ryan is one of the most accomplished defensive coaches in NFL history,” Riley said in a statement. “With over two decades of NFL experience, he will immediately bolster our staff as we continue our climb here at USC. He has coached some of the NFL’s top players, including numerous Hall of Famers and All-Pro selections. We’re thrilled to welcome Coach Ryan and his family to our program.”
For all of the excitement an expanded College Football Playoff has created, there is at least one unintended consequence that seems to be revealing itself during Ohio State’s incredible postseason tear.
Rivalries no longer matter.
For all the dancing, prancing, flaunting and flag-planting we witnessed during rivalry week this season, Ohio State is proving teams can lose multiple times now — including its last game to its fiercest opponent — and suffer no consequences.
Of course, try telling Ryan Day in the moment that losing to Michigan doesn’t matter. He looked spooked by the ghost of Bo Schembechler walking off the field of Ohio Stadium. Jack Sawyer was ready to fight the entire state of Michigan. We were all still indoctrinated by the old set of rules.
There was a time when losing the last game of the season was a death sentence in college football. Those days ended long ago, but even since the inception of the four-team playoff, no team with two losses ever qualified. A second loss meant the police were showing up to the party. It was time to go home.
Not anymore.
GO DEEPER
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We’ve never seen anything like what the Buckeyes are doing. As a result, it’s time for college football fans to recalibrate what matters and what doesn’t. If the Playoff indeed expands again in the coming years, rivalry games will continue depreciating faster than a used Lincoln.
I considered this while watching the Buckeyes dismantle Oregon in the first half of their quarterfinal game and then again while reading Joe Rexrode’s thoughtful piece this week on Ohio State fans still grappling with the Michigan loss. Ohio State fans have endured every stage of grief and jubilation within a span of about two months.
After the Michigan loss, I thought Ohio State would either lose to Tennessee or win the whole thing. There was really no middle ground, and I probably would’ve leaned more toward losing to Tennessee than winning it all. I was a prisoner of the old guard.
“We could quit, like we knew everyone wanted us to … or be the best team in the country, like we know we are.
We chose Option B.”@jacksawyer33 and @OhioStateFB are one win away. https://t.co/kAnmCf2sq5
— The Players’ Tribune (@PlayersTribune) January 16, 2025
For years, Michigan losses felt like funerals and John Cooper was the caterer at the repast.
“I’m sorry for your loss. Have some baked beans.”
Now Ohio State has lost to Michigan and managed to make the Playoff in two of the last three years. It is a win over Notre Dame away from claiming another national championship.
Suddenly, Michigan doesn’t really seem to be a big deal anymore.
By next November, given what the Buckeyes have already accomplished, will we view Ohio State-Michigan or the Iron Bowl the same way?
Ohio State is practically assured of making the Playoff every year it enters the Michigan game with only one loss. Ohio State fans’ visceral reaction to losing to Michigan was in part because we have been conditioned for generations to believe a two-loss team, particularly when one of those losses occurs in the final game, signals the end of the season.
Alabama lost to Auburn a few years ago and still managed to play for a national championship, but it was the Tide’s only loss.
Imagine how much different Cooper’s legacy in Columbus might look today if 12-team playoffs were a thing in the 1990s? If Cooper had a meaningful chance to right his Michigan wrongs in a postseason tournament?
The Jim Tressel era may never have occurred.
GO DEEPER
Notre Dame, Ohio State already own college football’s worst losses by national champions
A big part of what has made rivalries so romantic in college football is their impact on postseason fate. Teams eliminated from meaningful bowl games could at least wreck your enemy’s house and make them miserable, too. Only we’re starting to realize how the Playoff has stripped away all of those punitive damages.
Day said he was “very, very grateful” for this expanded format. No kidding. His house might be on Zillow without it.
“I do think the new format has allowed our team to grow and build throughout the season,” Day said. “And as much as losses hurt, they really allow us as coaches and players to take a hard look at the issues and get them addressed.”
Still writing our story… 📝 pic.twitter.com/2vg2sk6ODN
— Ohio State Football (@OhioStateFB) January 15, 2025
As college football continues to blur deeper into the professional game, fans of Power 5 teams must also begin altering their expectations.
Does anyone care or even remember that the Green Bay Packers were a wild-card team in 2010? What about the Pittsburgh Steelers in 2005 or the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 2020? What’s more important, the fact they didn’t win their division or that all three teams won Super Bowls?
The same is true now in college football. How long before the right three-loss SEC team makes the Playoff? Impossible? We might find out if the field ever expands to 16 teams.
Winning the conference doesn’t really matter — all four conference champs were eliminated in their first games. Losing to a rival doesn’t have to matter.
As players rightfully begin to cash in on the riches of the college game, school presidents and athletic directors are finally saying out loud what truly matters most.
Money.
Ryan Day and the Ohio State fan base are forever grateful.
(Photo of Ryan Day and Jack Sawyer celebrating at the Cotton Bowl trophy ceremony: Ron Jenkins / Getty Images)
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