Get to Know American Jennifer Brady

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Get to Know American Jennifer Brady

The year is young, but 2017 has been very good to Jennifer Brady.

The American has reached the R16 on her Australian Open main draw debut and is only the sixth player to achieve this in the last 21 years. The others? Margarita Gasparyan and Johanna Konta (2016), Eugenie Bouchard (2014), Carla Suarez Navarro (2009) and Venus Williams (1998). She is also the youngest player remaining in the women’s draw.

We realize many of you probably don’t know much about her (like us), so here’s a few tidbits to remember, from her press interview on Saturday.

“I was born in Pennsylvania,” she told reporters after her victory over Elena Vesnina on Day 6, which was her first Top 20 win and just her fifth tour-level win overall. “Just picked up a tennis racquet, I guess, and moved to Florida when I was nine. Not for tennis, but, you know, it ended up working out. Went to Evert Tennis Academy. Went to college. Played two years. Now this is starting my second year on tour."

She currently trains at the USTA facility in Lake Nona, Fla., where she is guided by the USTA staff.

Brady attended UCLA for two years before turning pro. She will rise inside the Top 90 in the rankings based on her three wins in Melbourne, and could go higher if she can defeat Mirjana Lucic-Baroni in the round of 16.

Brady told reporters that she had sat down to go over her goals with her team a few months ago, and one of her goals for the next few years was to make the second week of a major. She can check that off the list already. Brady says that while it was on her list of things to do, she really wasn’t sure if it was possible.

“I mean, I wrote it down and told myself, you know—I said it, but I didn't say it confidently,” she said.

The American says that her favorite players growing up where Justine Henin and Kim Clijsters, and on the men’s side: Roger Federer.

Does she want to meet the great Federer while she’s in Melbourne, since they’re still both alive in the draw together? “Yeah, no,” she said. “I'd get too nervous."

Brady will face Lucic-Baroni on Monday in Melbourne. The Croatian is another one with an improbable story. She had now won a match at the Australian Open in 18 years before snapping a personal eight-match losing streak at Melbourne in the first round.

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