American Jennifer Brady, who won the 2014 NCAA Division I National Championship as a freshman with UCLA, is one win away from matching one of Billie Jean King's records at the iconic tennis venue named after the trailblazing legend.
With her run to the 2020 US Open semifinals, Brady is the second former college tennis player in as many years to reach the women's singles semifinals at a Grand Slam, joining compatriot Danielle Collins, who reached the 2019 Australian Open semifinals after winning the NCAA singles championship with the University of Virginia in 2014 and 2016.
Brady, who's from Harrisburg, Pa., and now trains at the USTA National Campus in Orlando, Fla., is the first former college player to reach the women's semis in New York since Lori McNeil (Oklahoma State) in 1987.
With a win against Noami Osaka in Thursday's semifinals, the 25-year-old would become the first college product to reach the championship round since King (Cal State Los Angeles) won her fourth US Open singles title in 1974.
King was a part of multiple generations of American women to have come through college to win the US Open singles title. From 1954-74, five American women who went to college—all of whom are now enshrined in the International Tennis Hall of Fame—accounted for 11 US Open singles titles: King (1967, 1971-72, 1974) Darlene Hard (Pomona College, 1960-61), Althea Gibson (Florida A&M, 1957-58), Shirley Fry (Rollins College, 1956) and Doris Hart (University of Miami, 1954-55).
Kevin Anderson, formerly of the University of Illinois, reached the US Open men's singles final in 2017 and the Wimbledon final in 2018. John Isner, a former Georgia Bulldog, is a two-time US Open quarterfinalist (2011, 2018) and also reached the Wimbledon semis in 2018, where he fell to Anderson, 26-24, in the fifth set.
Brady, who is beyond the Round of 16 for the first time at a Grand Slam, will take on the No. 4-seeded Osaka at 7 p.m. in Arthur Ashe Stadium on Thursday. The 25-year-old has yet to drop a set this fortnight, and is on track for one of the most dominant US Open runs of all-time. She hasn't dropped more than four games in a single set thus far, conceding an average of less than five games per match en route to the semis.
WATCH: Highlights from Brady's quarterfinal victory over Yulia Putintseva
