In late 2019 Jennifer Brady was a decent WTA pro, nobody projected her to be anything special.
Then it all changed.
A colleague from Germany named Jannik Schneider did a German language podcast with Brady’s coach Michael Geserer, a German who connected with Brady in late 2019. Geserer was once ranked 189 in ATP singles and previously coached Julia Goerges to her 2018 Wimbledon semi. He played doubles with Philipp Kohlschreiber in 1997 in a Futures in Jamaica and later coached the German perennial top 20 range player during his most productive stretch. Geserer also lost to Stefan Edberg in 1995 at Dutch Open.
Schneider was kind enough to tell me the story of Geserer’s uniting with Brady. A coach friend of Geserer asked him to come to Japan or China at the end of 2019 to get connected with Brady who was seeking a new coach and a new direction. Geserer watched one match and two practices of Brady and then invited her to train with him in Innsbruck, Austria.
Brady, born in Harrisburg, PA on April 12, 1995, wanted to try something totally out of her comfort zone and outside the box.
Before Geserer, the 25 year old former no. 4 UCLA Lady Bruins player had been a solid professional, she made the 4R in AO and US Open in 2017 and then couldn’t get past the second round in any slam in 2018 or 2019. Brady reached the semis in AO doubles in 2019 with Allison Riske.
She trained with Geserer in that off-season between 2019 and 2020 in Regensburg, Germany, with an emphasis on “being constant, persistence and fitness was quite a topic,” said Schneider.
The results of the work with Geserer paid off immediately in 2020 as Brady, with a new, slimmer, more athletic physique, beat Maria Sharapova at the Brisbane International and then world no. 1 Ash Barty in the round of 16. Brady lost to Petra Kvitova in the QF but her WTA ranking achieved a career high best of 49. In the 2020 AO Brady lost in the first round to no. 4 Simona Halep but had three set points in the first set. In Dubai she beat Elina Svitolina and Garbine Muguruza before losing to Halep again in the semis.
Geserer’s impact was systematically building Brady into a world beater. At US Open, Brady was ranked 41 but seeded 28 and upset Kerber, Garcia and Putintseva and made it all the way to the semis where she lost to Naomi Osaka in three tough sets.
Brady again trained with Geserer in Regensburg, located an hour from Munich in Bavarian Germany, in the recent off season and again her improvement trajectory has continued. She just beat Maddie Brengle, Kaja Juvan, Donna Vekic, Jess Pegula and Karolina Muchova and is now in the finals where she will battle her US Open semi rival Osaka for the AO title.
Chris Evert said on the ESPN telecast this week that Brady trained at her academy in Boca Raton for eight years from age 10 to 18 and she was a good junior but behind the likes of Sacha Vikery, Victoria Duval and a few others. Evert said Brady always played aggressive but had trouble with confidence and staying relaxed but now has clearly overcome her flaws and is on the cusp of winning a Grand Slam singles title.
AO · Jannifer Brady · UCLA
Scoop Malinowski · February 18, 2021 at 12:08 pm
Evert said on ESPN during the Pegula win that Brady “plays like a man.” But she quickly softened that politically incorrect observation by saying she meant it in a positive way, how she is impressed how Brady plays very aggressively and plays with a live arm on her forehand and serve. Evert clearly assuring again that females and males are not equals on the tennis court. And that the “equality” agenda is just more BS. Evert was not criticized or condemned for saying this. And you have to wonder if McEnroe or Gilbert or Cahill said it, if there would be a media uproar?
Scoop Malinowski · February 18, 2021 at 12:11 pm
As most expected, Karatsev was not able to threaten Djokovic, who after surviving some turbulent waters earlier, is now in position to win no. 18. But getting through Medvedev or Tsitsipas will be very difficult. Losing this final would be heartbreaking and devastating for Djokovic, similar to the New York Islanders who won four Stanley Cups in a row and then they made the Stanley Cup finals the fifth year in a row, only to lose to the Wayne Gretzky led Edmonton Oilers in the mid 1980s.