By: Kyle Xu

Nothing came easily for Jennifer Brady.

At the 2020 U.S. Open, during the coronavirus pandemic, Brady reached the semifinals despite strict health measures.

Four months later, she reached the Australian Open final, and that was after being cooped up in a hotel for two weeks due to quarantine. She locked herself in the bathroom and hit tennis balls at cushions while keeping a hot shower running to replicate the humid air that most tournaments had.

If her performance had continued on like this, she would’ve made the top 10 singles rankings for tennis. However, she withdrew from the action at the peak of her career, as the pandemic slowly wore off due to some troublesome leg injuries.

Brady left U.C.L.A. after her sophomore year to begin playing professional tennis in 2015. But she really started to improve when she moved to Germany in 2019, coached by Michael Geserer, who was a strict, high-intensity coach.

After losing to Naomi Osaka in the 2021 Australian Open final, she retreated to the tournament in Doha, Qatar, in February 2021. However, a month later, she woke up in the middle of the night to feel a sharp, stabbing pain in the sole of her left foot.

Brady didn’t give up, even after being diagnosed with plantar fasciitis. However, after a match in May, she said she “couldn’t walk.”

She also decided to resign as Geserer’s student. She felt that they had pushed too hard. “There was no drama,” she said. “It was just a little too much; too much structure at that time period.”

For two years, Brady was stopped from playing tennis due to a chronic foot and knee injury. She described the pain as looking at her left foot and wishing she could just “chop it off.”

But last week, Brady played at the International Tennis Federation in Granby, Quebec. She lost to Himeno Sakatsume, a Japanese player ranked 223rd, but still has hopes for the sport. She wants to go on the WTA Tour next week for the DC Open.

Now, finally, Brady can once again play tennis.