Emma Navarro had a unique connection to the recent Charleston Open, as the tournament belongs to her father. It is now sponsored by Credit One Bank, another business owned by billionaire Ben Navarro. But the world No. 21 only pocketed £8,800 ($11,190) in prize money for her efforts at last week’s event.
Navarro was hoping to have a positive week on Charleston given her ties to the tournament. Her father Ben is the founder and owner of Sherman Financial Group, which owns Credit One Bank.
He also bought Charleston Tennis LLC through his Beemok Sports company back in 2018 and renamed both the tournament and the stadium in 2021 as Credit One Bank became the title sponsor. Navarro’s dad funded major renovations to the main stadium as a gift to the city of Charleston which were unveiled at the 2022 edition of the tournament.
The world No. 21 had the chance to put her family’s name in the tournament’s history in a different way when she competed in the WTA 500 event last week. Navarro was the 10th seed in Charleston and came in off the back of her best-ever start to a season.
But she was unable to make an impact at the tournament and write her name on the trophy as she suffered a shock defeat to then-world No. 83 Jaqueline Cristian. Navarro stormed past Katie Vllynets 6-1 6-1 in her opening match but fell 6-3 5-7 6-1 to Cristian.
Although the tournament has plenty of financial backing from her dad, Navarro only won £8.8k in prize money for reaching the round of 16. It’s just a fraction of the 22-year-old’s total career prize money, which comes in at £1.1m ($1.4m).
