Five years removed from her maiden Grand Slam singles title, Great Britain's Jordanne Whiley says she still recalls more than a few moments from a history-making 2015 US Open.
"I wasn't playing very well, and I wasn't very happy with how I was coming into the tournament. I lost in doubles in the first round, played terrible, and I thought, 'Oh god, I'm going home.' The next thing I knew, I was in the final of the singles, and I was like, 'How did I even get here? It's like a dream.'
"It was a roller-coaster of a final... against my doubles partner and best friend [Japan's Yui Kamiji], so they're always a bit trickier. After, we went and got chicken nuggets together, because we finished at, like, 2 a.m. after a rain delay and everything. She was really happy for me.
"I look back now, and I'm like, 'I don't know how I won the US Open,' because it was such a crazy week."
In the present, Whiley is back at the 2020 US Open Wheelchair Competition presented by Deloitte for the first time since that memorable victory, when she became the first Brit to win a Grand Slam title in wheelchair women's singles. While Serena Williams, Victoria Azarenka and Tsvetana Pironkova were the story over the first week-plus of the fortnight as mothers in the women's singles draw, Whiley is hoping to blaze trails of her own as another tennis mom.
The 28-year-old gave birth to a son, Jackson, in January of 2018, and returned to the wheelchair tennis tour just over a year later—but speaking candidly ahead of her third Grand Slam since returning, the Brit told USOpen.org on Tuesday afternoon that a second act in competitive tennis wasn't in her plans.
"I thought I was done. After [the Rio Paralympics in 2016], I wasn't really enjoying tennis, and it was really disappointing for me after breaking by wrist while I was out there. It kind of felt like a waste of four years, and I knew I wanted to start a family," she said.
"It wasn't until Wimbledon of the same year that I had Jackson... I was watching Wimbledon on the TV, and I just missed it. I made the decision to come back and I started training that September."
Whiley played her first tournament back after her maternity leave last February, as a wild card at an event on home soil in Great Britain, and it was almost like she never left: she won it without dropping a set, and followed that up with a run to the final in the next tournament she played.
Though her results might've portrayed otherwise, the Brit revealed that the early days of training for her comeback weren't easy.
"I gained, like, two stone [28 pounds] and it was just awful. I thought I'd have to buy a new wheelchair, but luckily, my sponsor for my chair made me a new one so I could fit into it," she said. "Fitness-wise, I had 18 months out, so I was really unfit and totally not match sharp. I could obviously still play tennis and I was striking a good ball, but that was pretty much it.
"It took me a good year to lose a lot of the weight. Even now, I'm heavier than I was before... but it's really difficult when you get down to a certain weight and getting the last bit off is so, so hard. I've never struggled with weight issues before, and when I had Jackson, I said, 'Oh, I'll be fine! I'll just spring back,' but that hasn't happened."
"He knows that I play tennis, and he thinks it's cool when he sees me on the TV, so that's a bonus." - Jordanne Whiley on her son, Jackson.
While much has been made of the increase in moms on the WTA tour—there were nine in the women's singles draw at the Open—Whiley estimates that she is the first to try to balance motherhood and elite tennis on the wheelchair circuit.
"It's sometimes difficult because no one can relate in wheelchair tennis, but for me, I'm just like any other working mom. It's the same for Azarenka, Serena, they're just working moms, so I don't see why you can't do it," Whiley said. "It just takes a lot of hard work. There's different aspects to consider when you're training, when you're doing a competition schedule. It's important that you've got a good network around you.
With a laugh, she added: "I just sort of have been making it up as I go along. I've spoken briefly to [British cyclist and four-time Olympic gold medalist] Laura Kenny, and it was nice to hear from her. I've just done it how I feel is best for Jackson and me."
Unseeded in singles, Whiley will face top seed and world No. 1 Diede de Groot in Thursday's quarterfinals, while she and Kamiji are the No. 2 seeds in doubles. After the duo won the Australian Open together earlier this year, Whiley looks to add an 11th doubles Grand Slam title to her trophy case.
In a typical year, the Top 8 players in the world often stack the eight-player men's and women's wheelchair singles draws in Flushing Meadows. In light of the global situation, however, this year's tournament has just four of the Top 8 women. Whiley, the world No. 5, says she's looking at the Open draw as an opportunity.
"It's a different draw this year... so there's a different dynamic, which I think is quite exciting," she said. "I think everyone sees it differently. I think some people would prefer it to be how we usually have it, because, on paper, they're the best in the world. But for me, I see that as you can't do anything about people who didn't want to travel, or couldn't travel if they're stuck in their country. You have to respect that, and so the next people in line got in.
"I think it's quite nice that [...] there's variations in who you can play. There's one girl here [world No. 10 Angelica Bernal] who's from Colombia. It's her first Slam and that is really exciting for her. She's a really good player, so I'm excited for her to have her first experience here."
Having had the opportunity to bring her young family with her on the road prior to the pandemic, Whiley is in New York with only her coach, Joshua Crossley, because of COVID-19 restrictions. While Jackson is back home with her mother Julie and fiancé Marc McCarroll, also a wheelchair tennis player, Whiley says that her robust support system is what helps her keep on a pioneering path.
"I wanted to make sure that I was a mom first of all, and that tennis was second. I feel like I have a really healthy balance of when I'm at home and when I'm away, and I've just changed the way that I schedule tournaments and training now so that it suits Jackson," she said.
"I'm hoping that next year, I'll be able to bring him to a few more Slams.
"He knows that I play tennis and he thinks it's cool when he sees me on the TV, so that's a bonus."
