UCLA coaching staff didn’t know what to expect from incoming freshman Jennifer Brady, one of the country’s most publicized junior tennis players, when she started attending school in the fall of 2013.
She had been ranked number 36 in the world as a junior and played in three of the four women’s Grand Slam events. Manager Stella Sampras Webster was unsure whether Brady would have expected to be the Bruins’ top player immediately and would have been disappointed had she not been in first place straight away.
But Sampras Webster was pleasantly surprised by what happened when Brady arrived on campus.
“Jenny had such a unique mindset from the start,” he said earlier this week. “So many players come with a bit of a selfish attitude and want to play high, and they want to play against the best, but his goal was simply to improve. He told all of us on the coaching staff, ‘I don’t.” It doesn’t matter. where I play. Just make sure you play right. “
“She just used every single game, every single practice as an opportunity to improve. She didn’t get involved in any of the other things. She knew that if she kept working and stayed focused, she could improve enough to be a pro. And he has certainly shown that he can do just that, and that his hard work has paid off. “
Now ranked at number 41 in the world, Brady is one of the hottest players since the season resumed after a six-month hiatus due to the coronavirus pandemic. She won her first career WTA title at the Top Seed Open in Lexington, Kentucky in the first summer event in August and progressed to round four at the US Open on Wednesday with a 6-3, 6-3 win over Caroline Garcia, who had tipped the seeded Karolina Pliskova in the previous round.
It was just the last dominant performance for Brady, 25, who knocked out Anna Blinkova and fellow American CiCi Bellis in the first two rounds, both in series. Against Garcia, Brady recorded 10 aces and an 81% first serve win rate. Each win was more affirmative than the last, in stark contrast to his opponents who achieved success as teenagers.
Brady took a significantly different path. He could have turned pro after his junior career, but he knew his game wasn’t quite ready to compete at the highest level. He took the road less traveled and went to the NCAA. Although there are a growing number of women on the WTA Tour who have played in college, including Danielle Collins and Kristie Ahn, Sampras Webster said there’s still something of a stigma about it.
“I learned to train and definitely spent a lot more time on the pitch training and in the gym,” Brady told ESPN of his time at UCLA. “[Before] I would do things a little, I mean half-ass but I don’t know if I can swear, but I have learned to be more professional. “
After two college seasons, which included a national team championship and multiple All-American accolades, Brady turned pro. It wasn’t an easy road. Brady had to make his way into the International Tennis Federation circuit. In one of her first games – in a $ 50,000 event in Las Vegas in 2015 – she faced Alexandra Stevenson, the former Wimbledon semi-finalist and current ESPN analyst.
“He beat me with his forehand, I remember that,” Stevenson said after calling Wednesday’s Brady-Bellis game. “I knew she would be a good player and that she could play at this level, but there is a lot more to do. I think a lot of people don’t realize how hard it is to do it, to get your ranking enough to play in events. WTA and the funding you need. But she did what it took and went all over the world playing in these little tournaments, and of course she managed to pull it off. “
It’s that experience that Stevenson believes prepared Brady for current conditions at the US Open.
“Moving from ITF to WTA is like moving from Motel 6 to Four Seasons,” he said. “The level of competition is high there, but everything else is very different. She is used to not having people in the stands or kids and she has to do so much on her own. But passing that makes you a fighter, and that’s what we are about. seeing with her. She never gives up because she had to work hard to get here. “
Brady won four singles and five doubles titles at the ITF level before being able to play consistently in WTA events in 2016. He had an important season in 2017, advancing to round four at both the Australian Open and the US Open, but struggled with achieving consistent results. She found more success in doubles (she and partner Alison Riske reached the semi-finals in Melbourne in 2019).
It was all going together for Brady to start 2020. She defeated world No. 1 Ashleigh Barty in front of Barty’s home crowd in Brisbane and entered the top 50 for the first time in her career. She beat Elina Svitolina, another top-10 player, in February in Dubai and eventually made it to the semifinals.
Despite the long hiatus from competition, Brady returned to the field in August and won her first WTA title. On Sunday she will face 2016 US Open champion Angelique Kerber in the fourth round on Sunday.
Sampras Webster, who has eagerly watched all of Brady’s games and later texted her, believes Brady could most likely take the lead against Kerber and continue his run in Queens.
“If he can just keep his composure and be able to relax and keep playing and not get overwhelmed and think too much, then I think he can beat anyone,” he said. “There are no limits for her right now, because she has a great serve. When she serves well and hits her forehand well, she is hard to beat.”
Brady says he is as capable as anyone else right now of winning his first major title next week.
“I think in the women’s game anyone could win a Grand Slam,” she said Wednesday. “I think just being here to play and having some good wins definitely increases my confidence. And knowing that if I’m here in a week and a half from now playing in the final, I can go out and win that game. [That’s] definitely a belief in my mind. “
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