Chloe Beck: Duke standout competes on pro tour

Chloe Beck is a Duke University graduate with a degree in psychology and a double minor in neuro and environmental science to go with her standout tennis career.

That should help make the Walkinsville, Ga., area product a real threat on the WTA Tour. Every tennis player should be so lucky. Figuring out what’s happening on the court can be tricky. But Beck has the hidden ability to sparkle within herself.

“She’s someone who likes to think things out. That’s her personality,” veteran Duke women’s coach Jamie Ashworth was quoted about her by “GoDuke Magazine.”

Beck ready for return to play

Of course, in tennis, a player is out there all alone. But Beck is more than ready for the mind game of professional tennis when she is completely healthy. Beck is currently trying to get physically ready to start the 2024 pro season.

She advanced to last year’s $25K Florence USTA Pro Circuit final before losing to NCAA doubles champion Fiona Crawley.

Beck trains at LTP Tennis in Mount Pleasant, S.C., full-time. Right now, she is slowed down just a bit, according to LTP Academy general manager Patrick Hieber. But the former Duke No. 1 can’t wait to get back on the ITF minor leagues circuit of world professional tennis.

“Chloe has some issues with her back that we are trying to get figured out right now,” Hieber said. “Plan would be to start at the W60 in Vero Beach (Fla.) on Jan. 22,” Hieber said.

Junior doubles partners: Beck and Navarro

LTP (Love To Play) is located in Mount Pleasant and Daniel Island, and both are part of the tennis kingdom owned by Ben Navarro, the father of world’s No. 31 Emma Navarro. (Read James Beck’s recent article on Navarro.)

Beck’s parents, Mike and Debbie, operate the Beck Tennis Academy in the Athens, Ga., area. Debbie served for a decade as an assistant coach at the perineal powerhouse, the University of Georgia. Beck’s 20-year-old brother Nick is a member of Duke’s club tennis program.

Not that long ago, Beck and Navarro were teaming up to win the 2019 Junior French Open doubles championship. They also were doubles runners-up in the Junior Australian Open in 2019.

In last year’s WTA 125 Dow Tennis Classic, Beck advanced out of qualies. In the round of 32, she went up against a very familiar face. Navarro won the match 6-2, 6-3.

Both players selected the Duke tennis program, but Navarro ended up at the University of Virginia and won the NCAA singles title in 2021.

Beck is almost as proud of her Duke education as Navarro is pleased with her success on the WTA Tour. Beck made the decision to turn pro in June of 2023. She has quickly climbed the rankings tree to No. 391 while mostly playing the ITF Tour.

“I decided I wanted to pursue a professional career,” Beck said recently at LTP. “Oh, yeah this is my career. I’m going to make it permanent. I’m all in. “It’s definitely difficult, but it’s exciting. I’m doing what you dream about doing.”

It’s all about pro tennis

The pro tour now has taken over Beck’s game.

“I definitely have developed my game. I think my game developed in college,” Beck said. “I already see how my game has developed more in the past few months of playing professionally. I feel like I have already got a lot better. I see a level I can play at,” she said.

Her improvement in aggressiveness is obvious during her workouts on the green clay of LTP.

“I’m just constantly pushing myself every day to be better and just seeing where I can go with the hard work. It’s awesome,” Beck explained.

“I hadn’t played (tournaments) since high school, so while I was in college I didn’t (play pro tennis). A lot of players throughout college still played a few pro events. But I didn’t do that. So, when I went to college I didn’t play any pro tournaments my freshman, sophomore or junior years. I came here in April for the $100K and won a couple of rounds in the main draw and got my ranking up to like 700. So right when I was starting my actual pro career in June, I started at 700 and now I think I am around 380, which is a good start for me, I think.”

How good can Beck get?

“Honestly, just to see how much better I can get and just continue to build on skills I’m developing and just working on being more aggressive and really just fine tuning a lot of little things in my game and I feel like that’s what is going to take me to the next level, so I can play players that are really at the top of tennis right now.

“I play more ITF tournaments than WTA. It’s a lot of ITF and then once in awhile I play WTA 125s. I really think I have the capability to play at WTA right now because I’ve been in a few tournaments and I feel like I’m right there with everyone.”

Just how much potential does Beck have as a pro tennis player?

“We believe she can be very good,” Hieber said.

Navarro’s success

What about Beck’s former doubles partner’s awesome success on the WTA Tour?

“I’m not shocked at how quickly Emma has risen her level just because she works harder than so many other people,” Beck said.

“I know she just puts in the hours every day and is hard working and super humble. And I feel like that goes such a long way when you are willing to do the work that other people are not.”

Navarro initially committed to Duke also, but then switched to Virginia, leaving Beck at Duke.

Did Navarro’s switch negatively  impact Beck’s college career?

“No, I think it’s actually one of the coolest things ever,” Beck quickly answered.

“That’s why a few reasons why I started looking at Duke was because of me knowing Emma and because she had visited Duke and her Dad said like ‘You should look as well.’ And I really hadn’t been considering Duke a whole lot until she committed there, but if not for all of that I wouldn’t have gone there. And it was one of the best four years of my life,” Beck said.

“And my brother goes there now, too, so it really is kind of a full circle thing that everything worked out so well for both of us in terms of our collegiate careers and where we are at now and both being back at LTP and it’s really, really cool,” Beck said about her friendship with Navarro.

“The community here (LTP) is second to none. I felt as a junior I was so cared for here. I feel like the whole community with the coaches, players and the staff like physical therapy, strength training is just really the best thing you can get.”

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James Beck (no relation to Chloe Beck) was the 2003 winner of the USTA National Media Award for print media. A 1995 MBA graduate of The Citadel, he can be reached at Jamesbecktennis@gmail.com.