Jennifer Brady

Brady made her Grand Slam debut at the 2014 US Open, having received a wildcard with Samantha Crawford for the women's doubles main-draw.[5] Brady won four singles and fives doubles titles on the ITF Women's Circuit. She first played in the main draw of a WTA 125 tournament at the Carlsbad Classic in November 2015, reaching the semifinals. In September 2016 on the WTA Tour, she reached the quarterfinals at the Guangzhou International Open, in singles and doubles.

Brady reached the singles main draw of a Grand Slam tournament for the first time at the Australian Open, after winning all three of her qualifying matches. In the main draw, she defeated Maryna Zanevska, Heather Watson, and 14th seed Elena Vesnina.[6] Her run came to an end in the fourth round with a straight set loss to Mirjana Lučić-Baroni.[7]

Due to her success at the Australian Open, Brady obtained a spot in the main draw of the remaining three Grand Slam tournaments without playing qualifyings. At the French Open, she lost her opening-round match to 13th seed Kristina Mladenovic.[8] At Wimbledon, she lost in the second round to eighth seed Dominika Cibulková, in straight sets. At the US Open, she defeated Andrea Petkovic in the first, 23rd seed Barbora Strýcová in the second, and Monica Niculescu in the third round.[9] Facing top-seeded Karolína Plíšková in the fourth round, Brady was beaten in straight sets.[10]

Brady at the 2018 French Open

Brady had more success in doubles than singles. In January, she reached the quarterfinals of the Australian Open with Vania King.[11] In March, she reached the final of the WTA 125 Indian Wells Challenger with King, where they fell to Taylor Townsend and Yanina Wickmayer in two sets.[12]

Brady began to come back into form. She began the year by reaching the semifinals in doubles of the Australian Open with Alison Riske, before falling to the world No. 2 team of Tímea Babos and Kristina Mladenovic.[13] In February, she made it to the third round of the Dubai Championships where she defeated world No. 22, Jeļena Ostapenko, and No. 20, Caroline Garcia, before falling to No. 4, Petra Kvitová, in three sets.[14] The following week, she reached the final of the Indian Wells Challenger, in which she fell to Viktorija Golubic, in three sets.[15] To keep the hot streak going, the following week at the Indian Wells Open, she defeated world No. 19, Caroline Garcia, before falling to No. 12, Ashleigh Barty, in the third round.[16]

Brady's next notable result of the year came during the grass-court swing at the Nottingham Open when she reached semifinals, before falling to eventual champion Caroline Garcia, in three sets.[17] She also had a strong showing at the Premier Mandatory China Open where she defeated fellow Americans Amanda Anisimova and Madison Keys, before falling to US Open champion Bianca Andreescu in the third round.[18]

Brady began the season at the Brisbane International, where she made it through qualifying and went on to defeat Maria Sharapova, before stunning world No. 1 and home favorite, Ash Barty, in the round of 16.[19] It was the biggest win of her career to date, and helped her reach a new career-high singles ranking of No. 49 in the world. She went on to lose in the quarterfinals to No. 4, Petra Kvitová, in straight sets.

Brady got a tough draw at the Australian Open, where she fell to No. 4, Simona Halep, 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.[20] 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, in straight sets.

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, in the first round. In the second, she faced Markéta Vondroušová and rallied from a set and a double break down to win the match in three sets.[21] In the quarterfinals, she faced two time major champion and former world No. 1, Garbiñe Muguruza, defeating her in a three-setter to move on to her first Premier semifinal,[22] where she lost in two sets to eventual champion Simona Halep.[23]

Brady participated in the all-star Credit One Bank Invitational in Daniel Island, an exhibition event that served as the Charleston tournament after organizers reformatted the tournament following 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 exhibition event.

Her first tournament following the resumption of the WTA Tour was the Kentucky Open where she won her maiden WTA Tour singles title. She defeated Heather Watson, sixth seed Magda Linette, Marie Bouzková, Coco Gauff, and Jil Teichmann without dropping a set, or facing a tiebreak in any set. Following her victory, Brady's ranking rose to a career-high No. 40.

At the US Open, Brady was seeded 28th despite being ranked 41st in the world (due to the number of top-20 players who pulled out of the tournament.) She defeated Anna Blinkova, CiCi Bellis and Caroline Garcia in straight sets, before defeating 2016 champion and former world No. 1, Angelique Kerber, to advance to her first Grand Slam quarterfinal. She then recorded another straight-sets win over the 23rd seed Yulia Putintseva to reach her first Grand Slam semifinal, which she lost to Naomi Osaka in three sets.[24][25]

Brady started the season in Abu Dhabi. After winning the first set, she lost in the first round to Tamara Zidanšek.[26] She also played doubles in the same tournament with Garbiñe Muguruza, they lost in the quarterfinals.

At the Australian Open, Brady beat Aliona Bolsova, Madison Brengle, Kaja Juvan, Donna Vekić, Jessica Pegula, and Karolína Muchová to reach her first major final in which she was defeated by Naomi Osaka, in straight sets.[27] As a result, she reached a career-high of world No. 13 in the singles rankings on 22 February 2021.

At her debut at the Olympics, Brady was the 11th and only American seed in the tournament. However, she was defeated by Italian Camila Giorgi, in the first round, in straight sets.[28]

Brady's next tournament was the 2021 Cincinnati Open. In the first round, she beat Ekaterina Alexandrova in straight sets. In the second round, she suffered a knee injury after taking the first set from Jelena Ostapenko. This injury would keep Brady out of tennis for two years.[29]

Brady wanted to return to professional tennis at the French Open, however, these plans were stopped by a foot injury.[30]

She had a successful return at the $100k Granby Championships in Canada where she defeated Kyōka Okamura in straight sets. Brady then lost to the sixth seed Himeno Sakatsume in the second round.

Brady made her return to the WTA Tour at the Washington Open. Using a protected ranking to enter the draw, she routed Anhelina Kalinina in the first round, before losing to No. 17 ranked Madison Keys.

Current through the 2023 French Open.