By: Isabelle Wang
In 2020 and 2021, U.S. tennis star Jennifer Brady was sidelined for nearly two years after chronic foot and knee injuries. She pushed herself so hard in training that eventually it became the reason she got injured.
In the 2020 U.S. Open, Jennifer made her career breakthrough, reaching the semifinals. Unfortunately, that was at the peak of Covid-19, so she had to abide by strict health measures, and there wasn’t encouragement from the crowds as no one could watch.
Jennifer backed her initial success up four months later when she competed in the Australian Open final. Before the competition, she had to go into two weeks of quarantine. But during quarantine, Jennifer trained in her hotel by hitting tennis balls against a mattress and exercising on a stationary bike. Her persevering attitude was what won her a title in the top ten in singles.
She became injured because she pushed herself too hard. Her chronic foot injury, and knee injury sometimes left Jennifer in tears as she was unable to compete. She sometimes even would stare at her crippled left leg with hatred, and wish that she could chop it off.
Brady returned to competition not too long ago and competed at the International Tennis Federation satellite tournament in Granby, Quebec. She won the first match, then lost her second. “It was unbelievable, just being out there,” Brady said in a telephone interview from Granby. “Just engaging and just having a crowd there, and people enjoying good tennis. I definitely missed this. I didn’t think I would be as comfortable as I was. I’m happy I was able to show people that I’m still here.”
Even though Brady no longer has her WTA ranking, she still has her protected ranking, so she is still going to compete in the U.S. Open. Brady avoids watching too much pro tennis, but she still knows that Marketa Vondrousova recently became the first unseeded woman to win a Wimbledon singles title. “The women’s game right now, it seems like anybody can win a Grand Slam tournament,” Brady said. “It seems like there’s a lot of opportunity.”