The former Australian Open finalist has just made her comeback to tennis after an over two year absence.
Elena Rybakina just won her first Australian Open title, three years after she finished as runner-up in Melbourne.
This meant that for a second consecutive year Sabalenka lost in the Australian Open final, having lost to Madison Keys in the 2025 final.
While Rybakina and Sabalenka continued to compete at the top of the sport after reaching the Australian Open final, another runner-up was close to retiring from tennis.
Jennifer Brady admits the doubts she had about her future in tennis
American WTA player Jennifer Brady reached the final of the Australian Open in 2021, just losing out to Naomi Osaka.
However, the former world number 13 has only played 12 matches in the past four tennis seasons after undergoing two knee surgeries.
The most recent of those took place after Brady retired from injury at the China Open in 2023, leading to her having a near three-year absence from professional tennis.
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Brady has just won her first match in nearly three years, but prior to this she told The Changeover Podcast that she had doubts over whether this would ever happen.
“Yeah, I mean obviously there’s obviously just like the unknown is probably like the scariest part, because there was some pretty tough days,” admitted Brady. “Some moments where I just started getting back on court and I was feeling decent and then all of a sudden it’s like I hit this plateau and then things weren’t looking great.
“You know my body wasn’t feeling good and then it was like ‘Will I ever be able to play again? Will I be able to train the way that I want to train to be able to compete at the highest level?’
“…Someone can tell you ‘Oh yeah, like you know in a year you will be back playing’, and it’s like well it’s been a year, it’s been two years and I’m still not playing yet, I think that was probably the scariest part of all of it.
“Because I feel like, obviously injuries in professional sports aren’t fair for anybody and it’s like you always want to end on your own terms and sometimes you don’t get that chance and for a little while I was starting to feel like ‘Oh wow, I didn’t get that chance to end on my own terms’.”
After making her comeback at the ITF 100K event in San Diego, Brady made it all the way to the semifinals before losing to her compatriot Elvina Kalieva.
Jennifer Brady suggests what she plans to do after retiring from tennis
While retirement is not on the cards for Brady just yet, she has had plenty of time to think about her plans after she stops competing in the sport.
Brady revealed that she had been coaching at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), and now can see her going into this field after she stops playing, as well as continuing her role on The Players’ Box Podcast alongside Jessica Pegula, Keys and Desirae Krawczyk.
“The podcast for me, like you asked earlier if that’s helped me, yes…But I spent the year in 2024 at UCLA, I went back and was studying and was volunteer assistant coach of the women’s team,” explained Brady. “For me, I actually really enjoyed that like coaching and that side of things.”
Brady wants to get into coaching after retiring from tennis, but she is unsure as to whether she would want to coach a player on either the ATP or WTA Tour.
The 30-year-old added, “Yeah, I think I definitely want to get into coaching when I’m done playing, I don’t know about on tour, has to be the right person!”
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After competing in her first tournament in nearly three years, it is unclear as to when and where Brady will next compete.
While that question remains unanswered, Brady is confirmed to go from unranked to back inside the top 900 in the WTA rankings after winning three matches upon her return.
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