Emma Navarro reveals health diagnoses and sits out Asian swing

Emma Navarro has disclosed a prolonged struggle with her health and is missing the Asian swing as she works towards next season. According to BBC Sport, the American tennis player said in an Instagram post that the problems affected both her physical condition and her emotions, even while her results and ranking were improving.

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The 25-year-old said she was diagnosed with relative energy deficiency in sport, known as RED-S, towards the end of 2025. She subsequently learned she also had Hashimoto's hypothyroidism, an autoimmune disorder. BBC Sport reported that the health issues contributed to a difficult start to 2026, when she lost nine of her first 13 matches and withdrew from the Charleston Open at the end of March.

Navarro described a gap between how her progress appeared to others and how she felt. She said that, as a newcomer to professional tennis, she and her team believed they were taking the right approach by pushing her hard. Her improving results, speed and athleticism helped obscure problems that she said she initially ignored over a period of three years.

She reported losing about 14kg during 2023 and 2024. Even her first WTA Tour title, at the Hobart International, came during a period of emotional difficulty. Navarro described unusually intense irritability, frustration, worry and anger, including an urge to break rackets. She said she tried to conceal those feelings while becoming increasingly troubled by mistakes, disruptions to routines and persistent hunger.

The difficulties continued through 2025, when she experienced headaches, dizziness, fatigue, anxiety, mood swings and trouble thinking clearly. After consulting doctors, nutritionists and other specialists, Navarro said she realised she had been under-fuelling for almost the whole period. Her account connected those consultations with a better understanding of the symptoms she had been trying to manage.

Navarro is now ranked 24th, having reached a career-high position of eighth in 2024. She won the Strasbourg Open in May, her first title in more than a year. Although she is sitting out the Asian tournaments, she described having more energy after gaining weight this year, allowing her to train, compete and enjoy activities away from tennis.