Jennifer Brady

Jennifer Brady (born April 12, 1995) is an American professional tennis player. In February 2020, she reached her best singles ranking of world No. 45. In August 2019, she attained her career-high doubles ranking of world No. 44.

Brady made her WTA Tour debut at the 2014 US Open, having received a wild card with Samantha Crawford in the doubles tournament. Brady has won four singles titles and five doubles titles on the ITF circuit.

Brady had previously attended the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), having made her debut for the Bruins tennis team in fall 2013. During her freshman year at UCLA, she helped her team win the 2014 Division 1 Women's Tennis National Championship in Athens, Georgia. She completed her sophomore year of college before turning professional in 2014.

2014–2016: Early years

Brady won four singles titles and fives doubles titles on the ITF Women's Circuit. She first played in the singles main draw of a WTA 125K series tournament at the Carlsbad Classic in November 2015, reaching the semifinals. In September 2016 on the main level WTA Tour, she reached the quarterfinals at the Guangzhou International Women's Open in singles and doubles.

2017: Breakthrough at Grand Slams

Brady reached the singles main draw of a Grand Slam tournament for the first time at the 2017 Australian Open after winning all three of her qualifying matches. In the main draw, Brady defeated Maryna Zanevska, Heather Watson, and 14th seed Elena Vesnina. Her run came to an end in the fourth round with a straight set loss to Mirjana Lučić-Baroni.

Due to her success at the Australian Open, Brady was able to obtain a spot in the main draw of the remaining three grand slam tournaments without playing the qualifying rounds. At the French Open, Brady lost her opening round match to the 13th seed, Kristina Mladenovic. At Wimbledon, Brady lost in the second round to the 8th seed, Dominika Cibulková, in straight sets. At the US Open, Brady defeated Andrea Petkovic in the first round, the 23rd seed Barbora Strýcová in the second round, and Monica Niculescu in the third round. Facing top-seeded Karolína Plíšková in the fourth round, Brady was beaten, 6–1, 6–0.

Due to her success in Grand Slams in 2017, she was able to get into the main draw or qualifying draw for several Premier Mandatory tournaments and Premier 5 tournaments, but was unable to win a match in the main draw of any of these tournaments.

2018: Singles slump, doubles success

Brady found more success in doubles than singles in 2018. In January, she reached the quarter-finals in doubles of the Australian Open with Vania King. In March, she reached the final of a WTA 125K series event (WTA Indian Wells), with Vania King, where they fell to Taylor Townsend and Yanina Wickmayer 4–6, 4–6.

2019: Return to form

Brady began to come back into form in 2019. She began the year by reaching the semi-finals in doubles of the Australian Open with Alison Riske, before falling to the No. 2 team in the world of Tímea Babos and Kristina Mladenovic. In February she made it to the third round of the Dubai Tennis Championships. She defeated World No. 22 Jeļena Ostapenko and No. 20 Caroline Garcia before falling to No. 4 Petra Kvitová in three sets. The following week, she reached the final of a WTA 125K series event (WTA Indian Wells), where she fell to Viktorija Golubic 6–3, 5–7, 3–6. To keep the hot streak going, the following week at the Indian Wells Masters, she defeated World No. 19 Caroline Garcia before falling to No. 12 Ash Barty in the 3rd round.

Brady's next notable result of the year came during the grass court swing at the Nottingham Open, where she reached the semi-finals before falling to eventual champion Caroline Garcia 4–6, 6–3, 6–3.She also had a strong showing at the China Open, a Premier Mandatory event, where she defeated fellow Americans Amanda Anisimova and Madison Keys before falling to U.S. Open Champion Bianca Andreescu 1–6, 3–6 in the third round.

2020: Beginning the year with big wins

Brady began 2020 at Brisbane International, where she made it through qualifying and went on to defeat Maria Sharapova in the first round, before defeating World No. 1 and home favorite Ash Barty 6–4, 7–6 in the Round of 16. It was the biggest win of her career to date, and helped her reach her highest WTA singles ranking to date of No. 49 in the world. She went on to lose to No. 4 Petra Kvitova 6–4, 6–2 in the quarterfinals.Brady got a tough draw in the Australian Open, where she fell to No. 4 Simona Halep 7–6, 6–1, in the first round. She did push the former World No. 1 though, as Halep had to save three set points in the first set. In doubles she reached the quarterfinals for the third consecutive year, but she and Caroline Dolehide fell to top seeded Hsieh Su-wei and Barbora Strýcová 2–6, 2–6.

Brady made it through qualifying at the Dubai Tennis Championships and then secured her second win over a top 10 opponent of her career when she defeated No. 6 Elina Svitolina 6–2, 6–1 in the first round. In the second round she faced Markéta Vondroušová, where she rallied from a set and a double break down to win the match 4–6, 6–4, 6–1. In the quarterfinals she faced two time major champion and former World No. 1 Garbiñe Muguruza, defeating her 6–7, 6–3, 6–4 to move on to her first Premier semifinal., where she lost 2–6, 0–6 to eventual champion Simona Halep.

Brady participated in the all-star Credit One Bank Invitational in Daniel Island that served as the Charleston tournament after organisers reformatted the tournament after the COVID-19 pandemic as a Laver Cup style event.She was drafted by Bethanie Mattek-Sands to Team Peace, which won 26-22, going 4-0 with nine points (one win in the second day for one point, one win in the fourth day for two points, one win in the fifth day for three points, and one win in the sixth day for three points).She was the only undefeated player for the entire tournament.

Only main-draw results in WTA Tour, Grand Slam tournaments, Fed Cup and Olympic Games are included in Win–Loss records.

Singles

Current through the suspension of the 2020 WTA Tour.

Doubles

Singles: 1 (1 runner-up)

Doubles: 1 (1 runner-up)

Singles: 6 (4 titles, 2 runner–ups)

Doubles: 5 (5 titles)

Brady has played one season with World TeamTennis starting in 2019, when she made her debut with the Washington Kastles. It was announced that she will be joining the Orange County Breakers during the 2020 WTT season set to begin July 12.