Jennifer Brady reveals her "most embarrassing locker room" moment came during one of her early French Open appearances when she "froze" after seeing Serena Williams and rushed to pick up her stuff as quickly as possible.
In 2016, a 21-year-old came to Roland Garros seeking to clinch a main draw spot through qualifying. That year, the American managed to win her opening two matches, she fell just short of qualifying after losing to former world No. 5 Daniela Hantuchova in the qualies final round.
While Brady was a young American hoping to make a name for herself on the Tour, Williams was still one of the most dominant forces in tennis and the No. 1 favorite for the 2016 French Open title - the American tennis icon made the final that year before losing to Garbine Muguruza.
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Nowadays, 30-year-old Brady is inactive but still isn't officially retired. For the past couple of months, the former world No. 13 has been hosting a tennis podcast alongside Madison Keys, Jessica Pegula and Desirae Krawczyk. On the latest episode of their podcast, Keys asked the 30-year-old to share her most embarrassing locker room moment.
Brady: I froze up when Williams came in... I was so intimidated
"I would say at French Open, I was in the locker room, and you guys know how the space is very small, like it's very minimal and where I was I was in one of the corners. I was actually next to Serena, and I was cleaning out my locker," the 2021 Australian Open runner-up said on The Players' Box.
"I had four boxes of laundry, literally two bras and like one pair of shorts in one box, and then it's like four shirts. I'm like, 'Just put it all in one box.' And they give you so many boxes. And I'm in the middle of doing that. And Serena comes in, and I'm like, like I don't know. Like, I just I froze up and I was like, I'm in her way. I have to move.
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"I just literally just go stand on the bench, walk over like jump over the bags, and just leave. And I'm like, I never even finished cleaning out my locker. Like I just like had this urge to like I need to leave her in her space. Like, I was like so intimidated."
Brady made five consecutive French Open main draw appearances between 2017 and 2021. Since clay wasn't the American's top surface, she never achieved much success at Roland Garros, having only once made the third round.
On the other side, three of Williams' 23 Grand Slam titles came at the French Open.
