Emma Navarro grew up on Charleston’s Daniel Island courts, made her WTA main-draw debut here as a wild card in 2019, and has competed in every edition of the Credit One Charleston Open since.
At the seventh time of asking, the No. 4 seed hometown favorite made the quarterfinals for the first time, coming from a set and a break down to defeat fellow American and No. 15 seed Ashlyn Krueger 4-6, 6-4, 6-2. Navarro will face another compatriot in the last eight — No. 8 seed Amanda Anisimova, who advanced 6-4, 6-4 over No. 10 seed Yulia Putintseva.
Charleston: Draws | Scores | Order of play
Navarro said afterwards that, much as she appreciated the familiarity and crowd support, playing at home came with an extra wrinkle.
“There’s just something about being at home, which is normally our comfort place,” she told press. “It’s the place we go when tournaments are over, and it’s a place we can go to kind of de-stress and regroup and just feel the most comfortable and natural.
“So being home and then having a tournament at home in that normal place of comfort and relaxed quality is definitely weird. … Definitely have to remind myself when I go to sleep at night, OK, I’m in a tournament. Like, gotta stay focused. Can’t totally relax.”
Though Navarro and Anisimova grew up alongside each other as 2001-born peers, they did not meet on court until 2022. Anisimova has won both of their meetings to date, winning 6-2, 6-2 in the 2022 Indian Wells first round and 6-3, 2-6, 6-2 in the Toronto semifinals last year.
“Amanda is really tough,” Navarro said to press afterwards. “Big serve, big groundstrokes. Kind of similar, I would say, to the way Ashlyn plays. So, game plan is probably going to stay pretty similar, just try to be really strong and aggressive on returns and maybe serve a little bit better.”
Navarro was under immediate pressure from Krueger, who has already notched five Top 20 wins in 2025 and laid down her intent to take another by unleashing on return to break in the very first game. The 20-year-old kept her nose in front through the first set, then came up with a series of sweetly struck backhands to go up 2-0 in the second.
But a double fault beckoned Navarro back into the match, and the US Open semifinalist needed no further encouragement. She found a hefty forehand to break back, then a clean return winner of her own to move up 5-3 in the second set. From there, she pulled away in the decider, repeatedly foiling Krueger with drop shots as the younger American’s unforced error count rose to 40, outweighing 17 winners.
By contrast, Navarro steadily upped the aggression to turn the match around. She played a conservative opener, committing only five unforced errors to three winners. In the second and third sets, she struck 18 winners — and still had a positive ratio, leaking only 11 more unforced errors.
“I think first set she was super in control and really couldn’t get footing in my return games, her service games,” Navarro said. “Just came out in the second set and played really aggressively and wanted to push back against her and make her think a little bit more on her serve, and I think I was able to do that and ended up returning really well. And had some ups and downs with my serve, but I think the way I returned allowed for that to happen and me to be OK.”
Earlier, Anisimova delivered a superb performance to come through against Putintseva, improving to 3-1 overall against the Kazakhstani player (and 2-0 in Charleston, having also defeated her 6-1, 6-2 in the 2022 second round). It was an absorbing stylistic contrast, with Anisimova consistently seeking to up the pace of rallies and Putintseva trying to slow them down. But Anisimova showed that she had the confidence to handle the extended exchanges, patiently waiting for her opening to find the winning shot.
Putintseva’s customary touch let her down from the start: a drop shot was a touch too high, a lob fell just beyond the baseline. Though she managed to keep both sets close, the 30-year-old was also undone by an uncharacteristic 25 unforced errors.
