CHARLESTON, S.C. – Virginia women’s tennis sophomore Emma Navarro has been awarded a wildcard entry into the main draw of the singles championship at the 2022 Credit One Charleston Open, a WTA 500 clay court tournament taking place April 4-10 in Charleston, S.C.

Navarro, who has a  current world ranking of 201 after reaching a career-best 194 last month, faced fellow American Madison Brengle in the first round. Brengle, who is currently ranked No. 56, took the first set in a tiebreaker, 7-4, but Navarro rallied for a 6-2 victory in the second set. Navarro was up 3-0 in the third when Brengle retired.

“It was a tough first set.” Navarro said. “I wasn’t able to close it out after being up 5-4. Had a few chances, missed shots. I would have liked to have made, but I was happy with it. I was happy to stick in there. Yeah, beginning of the second set was tough. It was a battle. But I ended up being able to get through it and play some good tennis in the second set. First set, too. And then, yeah, it’s tough that she had to retire. It’s never easy or fun ending a match that way, and I’m wishing her a speedy recovery.”

Navarro faced the 4-seed Ons Jabeur in the second round. They began their match on Wednesday, but it was halted due to weather and resumed on Thursday afternoon. Jabeur, who is currently ranked No. 10 in the world, won in straight sets 6-3, 6-2.

This is Navarro’s second time advancing to the second round of this WTA 500-level tournament. Last year at the then-called Vovlo Car Open she advanced to the second round with a 6-4, 6-3 win against Renata Zarazua of Mexico before being edged 6-4, 6-4 by the 15-seed Veronika Kudermetova. She made her WTA debut at this same tournament in 2019, being edged 7-5, 6-4 in the first round.

This is the third WTA tournament that Navarro has played in this year. She competed at the 250-level Abierto GNP Seguros in Monterrey, Mexico, and the BNP Paribas Open 1000-level event at Indian Wells. Navarro’s best finish at a WTA tournament was a quarterfinal run at the WTA 125 LTP Women’s Open in Charleston, S.C. in July of last year. She has also competed in the main draw of singles and doubles at the 2021 US Open.

The Credit One Charleston Open is the largest women’s only tennis tournament in North America. Every April, Credit One and Charleston welcomes more than 100 world-class, women athletes to participate in the excitement of the Credit One Charleston Open. Records are broken and memories are made as extraordinary tennis stars take the Court at Credit One Stadium to compete for the coveted title of the Credit One Charleston Open.

The Credit One Charleston Open will have first ball to last ball coverage on Tennis Channel starting at 10:00am Monday, April 2nd 2022 and will not stop until Sunday, April 10th 2022. Tune in to the Tennis Channel for the best in professional women’s tennis, live from Charleston.

Emma Navarro post-match interview on the Tennis Channel