When Danielle Lao made her first visit to Wimbledon in 2019, she tried to describe it to her parents Bessie and Danny.
“I told them it’s like Narnia, but for tennis,” Lao said. “It almost seems not real. All the Slams are special and have their own style, but Wimbledon just has this mystique about it that just sets it apart.”
In that 2019 visit, Lao was a spectator as she walked the grounds, taking photos with some of her former University of Southern California teammates. She had come within one match of qualifying for the singles draw, losing in the final round in three sets after winning 6-0 against Arina Rodionova of Australia.