Jennifer Brady, the 2021 Australian Open runner-up and former world No. 13, announced she will be undergoing knee surgery and will be sidelined from competition for an extended period.
Brady, 28, did not give specific details of her injury but called the recovery process "extensive" in an Instagram post on Wednesday.
It's the latest setback for Brady, who had been unable to play on tour for nearly two years due to injuries before returning in July. Brady detailed her injuries and comeback journey in a series of interviews with ESPN in 2023.
Months after her debut Grand Slam final in Melbourne in 2021, Brady began experiencing discomfort in her left foot which got increasingly worse. She skipped the grass court season in order to play in the Olympic Games in Tokyo, where she lost in the first round.
Brady then played in the Cincinnati Open, where she tore her left plantar fascia in her second-round match. While the extent of her injury was not initially known, Brady was then forced to withdraw from the US Open, where she had reached the semifinals in 2020, and an MRI later revealed the severity of the tear.
Initially hoping to return in early 2022, Brady then discovered she had developed osteochondritis dissecans lesions in her right knee and would need surgery. Brady told ESPN she began to question if she would ever be able to return.
"I started just having anxiety and thinking, 'Oh my gosh, am I ever going to be able to recover or play again?' Just bad thoughts," Brady said. "I started freaking out and I was just not in a great place mentally."
But Brady remained committed to her recovery and future comeback. She trained at the USTA's National Campus in Orlando, Florida, and was slated to make her return at the 2023 French Open. However, a few days before she was set to travel to Paris she suffered a bone bruise in her right foot at practice and was forced to withdraw.
Finally healthy, Brady was able to return to competition at an ITF event in Canada in July 2023. Using her protected ranking of No. 14, she went on to play at the Citi Open, Canadian Open, Cincinnati Open, US Open and China Open. She reached the third round in New York.
Brady had been on the entry list for the Australian Open but withdrew in early January without public explanation. In her Instagram post, Brady admitted her journey had been challenging.
"While it hasn't been easy dealing with injuries and taking time off at the peak of my tennis career, I was grateful and happy to be back competing and playing at the highest level during the US Open swing and end of last year," Brady wrote. "I never expected this life to be easy -- playing professional sports at the highest level is difficult on the mind and the body, but I enjoy every moment of it and wouldn't change a single thing."
Brady also said she had re-enrolled at UCLA, where she had been a student and member of the tennis team in 2013 and 2014, and would be working as an assistant coach while on campus.
"I'm bummed not to be competing during this time, but I am very excited to be a part of the UCLA tennis team again," she wrote.
Several of Brady's peers commented with encouraging words on the post, including Coco Gauff and Sloane Stephens.