Less than a year ago, American Brandon Holt thought he'd might never play tennis again. Now, he'll play one of the best players in the world on one of the sport's biggest stages.
The 24-year-old American, the son of two-time US Open champion Tracy Austin, is making his Grand Slam debut at the US Open this year. Awarded a wild card for qualifying, with a ranking not high enough to get in directly, Holt won three matches around the grounds during US Open Fan Week to reach not only his first major main draw, but his first of any kind at ATP level.
After needing a career-threatening surgery on his hand last summer, just being here is something that the Californian isn't taking for granted.
"To not only be healthy but also playing my first Grand Slam main draw is amazing, amazing, amazing," Holt told a small group of reporters huddled in the Open's main media room on Friday at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center.
"But I’m just fortunate to be on the court and I think it just gives you a new perspective when you’ve been out there for so long from the game you love."
The road to this point's been a long one, on and off the court. Holt's not only taking on professional tennis with a new lease on his career, but also, new skills. He played four seasons of college tennis at the University of Southern California, where he peaked at a ranking of No. 2 in doubles and No. 4 in singles in 2018. After his intercollegiate career finished, the start of Holt's professional career was delayed thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic's effect on tennis. Then, last August, he pressed pause: He needed surgery on a long-painful hand injury, which he later learned was caused by an osteoid osteoma, or an extra bone growing on his fourth metacarpal.
“When I was going through that, I had no clue if my career was going to be over. I had no clue about my injury. Luckily I’m healthy, got some good rehab in and I was able to be pain-free for this whole time. Definitely, it was touch and go there for a little bit,” Holt said.
He started 2022 on a 15-match winning streak at ITF $15,000 events, the lowest level of professional tournaments, and has won five of those events this year. He reached a career-high ranking of No. 293 just prior to the start of the Open.
“It’s just a helpless feeling because I didn’t know what it was, it was hurting like crazy. I wasn’t able to play. ... Even going into the surgery, it wasn’t a fool-proof thing," he added.
"I went to watch Indian Wells [in 2021, rescheduled to October], for example, while I was injured and I think I may have been in a cast. I was unsure if I’d even be able to play, and then sure enough, I played the next Indian Wells in qualifying, so that was a surreal thing."
Austin won the US Open as a 16-year-old in 1979, making her the youngest champion in the event's history. Her son's talent was also evident early—he's of the same generation as Taylor Fritz and Reilly Opelka and was a boys' doubles finalist with Riley Smith at the 2015 US Open—and Holt admits that the decision to go to college was "tough," but ultimately successful.
"I’ve been coming here [to the US Open] literally since I was a newborn baby. I’ve probably been here 20 times ... When I was young, I would think about how cool it would be. I was eating those Minute Maid lemonades watching the matches and thinking, ‘These guys are so good,’ while just hammering straight sugar," he said "To be here playing is just so much fun. I see the kids watching and I was them, so it’s really cool to be out there playing.
"I loved college, it was great for me and I don’t think I would have been ready at whatever age I went to college to be playing [on tour]. I do think I would have gained a lot of experience, and I’m a little behind the eight ball in starting now, but the experiences I had in college at USC, they were amazing at development and everything like that, learning how to deal with pressure helps a lot in a team atmosphere. I wouldn’t trade that for anything. I have a degree under my belt and I enjoyed the school aspect, as well. I’m really happy I went to school.
"I think which coaches you choose to go to school with kind of shape and mold you. I went with Peter Smith, and Chris Quinta, and Brett Macey towards the end and I think they really developed me into the player I really wanted to be. That’s one of the reasons why I wanted to go there, and I think they really helped me where there were a lot of games where I was maybe more one-dimensional and they helped me with a lot of the intangible things. I think playing doubles, as well, really helps in college tennis, because it teaches you how to volley and it’s just a different skill set. I think that translates over to singles, as well. I think college was a great opportunity for me to learn how to change my game to be better suited for the pros."
Here, Holt's working with David Nainkin, a veteran American who's coached stars including Fritz—who'll be Holt's first-round foe. But it's obvious that his mom's given him some advice over the years, too.
"It’s definitely an advantage to have her as my mom," Holt says of Austin, who was spotted in the stands on Court 11 for his Round 3 match. "She has great pointers and helps me out a lot to understand this sport, recovery, and all the aspects of tennis, and also sports in general, the mental side of everything. She played at the highest level, so it’s definitely an advantage to have her, and that’s how I see it because I don’t know what it’d be like to have a mom that’s an accountant or something.
"I don’t think she’s really told me anything that sticks with me. I think it’s more just watching her play. She’s an unbelievable competitor, and even watching her do day-to-day things, it’s 100% or nothing. I’ve never seen her give anything less than 100%, whether it’s doing things for her family, which seems to be her favorite thing to do, because she’s always there for us.
"That’s the biggest thing that I’ve learned from her, whether that’s in tennis or just playing a game of cards. She’s not going to lose. She’ll reach across the table and rip your heart out, but she’ll hug you after. She’s a great competitor. I think I learned that more than any one thing she says, word-wise."
Holt's competitive skills were certainly on full display during his run through qualifying. All three of his matches went three sets, and he rallied from a set down in Round 1 and Round 2. Against Bulgaria's Dimitar Kuzmanov in Round 3, he also had to ovecome the weather: The 6-4, 3-6, 6-3 win was plagued by two rain delays late in the third set, the second of which came after Holt missed two match points.
It's a collective effort that Holt hopes will serve him well when he takes on Fritz, the top-ranked American man and world No. 12.
Though Nainkin has a long coaching relationship with both players, he will not be coaching either during the match due to a long-standing USTA Player and Coach Development policy of not coaching Americans against other Americans. Both players spent many years training at the USTA Player Development Training Center in Carson, Calif., as part of a West Coast training group that included Sam Querrey, Steve Johnson and Marcos Giron.
Holt was a part of an initial after-school program that began when the training center opened in 2010.
"I don’t know if there’s a huge mindset switch as far as how I’ll approach [the main draw]," he said. That’ll probably be the same and I don’t know if I’ll look at it like a different tournament. Maybe I should; I haven’t really thought about it because I’ve never been in this position.
"But I’ll just go out there and do what I know how to do. I think I’ve played three great matches, nine sets in a handful of days, so I think I’m happy with how I’m playing. It’s good to have those matches under my belt."
