Even when the big success finally came, it hardly came easily for Jennifer Brady.
She made her breakthrough at the 2020 U.S. Open near the height of the coronavirus pandemic, reaching the semifinals amid strict public health measures and the silence of a vast Arthur Ashe Stadium without any paying spectators.
When she backed that performance up four months later by reaching the Australian Open final, she did it after spending two weeks in hard quarantine in a Melbourne hotel. She smacked tennis balls against a mattress that she had propped against a wall and pedaled a stationary bike in the bathroom with the door closed and a hot shower running to try to replicate the tournament’s often steamy conditions.