{"id":20003,"date":"2025-07-24T07:50:07","date_gmt":"2025-07-24T07:50:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/20003\/"},"modified":"2025-07-24T07:50:07","modified_gmt":"2025-07-24T07:50:07","slug":"with-uber-eats-delivery-days-behind-her-carson-branstine-climbs-tennis-ranks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/20003\/","title":{"rendered":"With Uber Eats delivery days behind her, Carson Branstine climbs tennis ranks"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Carson Branstine returns the ball to Aryna\u202fSabalenka during their first round women’s single match at the Wimbledon tennis championships in London, Monday, June 30, 2025.Kin Cheung\/The Associated Press<\/p>\n

Carson Branstine remembers collecting cans and bottles with her mother and two sisters to help pay for gas and groceries after her family \u201clost everything\u201d about a decade ago.<\/p>\n

At the beginning of this year, she was modelling, teaching tennis and delivering food for Uber Eats to fund her fledgling tennis career \u2013 one that, beyond the financial barriers, was interrupted by a long string of injuries.<\/p>\n

It hasn\u2019t been an easy road, but Branstine says doing it the hard way is paying off.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t have any shortcuts to get to where I am, and I think that\u2019s made me really tough, to be able to compete and beat girls that have everything,\u201d she said. \u201cThey have all these fancy coaches and stuff, and then it\u2019s just me.\u201d<\/p>\n

A confident self-starter, Branstine has mounted a spirited defence against obstacles to get to centre court.<\/p>\n

Branstine takes a loss and a world of lessons from Sabalenka at Wimbledon<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cNothing really fazes me,\u201d she said in a phone interview. \u201cI don\u2019t care what it takes to win. Like I\u2019ll literally fight my brains off until the last point, I don\u2019t care.\u201d<\/p>\n

Branstine competes for Canada, but she grew up in Orange County, Calif. Her mother, Carol, is from Toronto.<\/p>\n

A 24-year-old dual citizen \u2013 and cousin to Los Angeles Dodgers star Freddie Freeman \u2013 Branstine enters the National Bank Open as a wild card this weekend in Montreal, riding a wave of momentum after sweeping through Wimbledon qualifying last month.<\/p>\n

The big-serving Branstine defeated French Open semi-finalist Lois Boisson and long-time friend Bianca Andreescu en route to her first Grand Slam main draw.<\/p>\n

Then she lost in the opening round to world No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka \u2013 on Court No. 1 at the All England Club \u2013 to cap a whirlwind few days.<\/p>\n

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Branstine (right) shakes hands with Aryna Sabalenka after Sabalenka won their first round match at Wimbledon. Sabalenka was complimentary to Branstine, who fought her way into her Grand Slam debut last month.ADRIAN DENNIS\/AFP\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

\u201cTook me a good week to fully settle down and be able to sleep well at night without my brain running like, \u2019Oh my gosh, what just happened?\u2019\u201d she said. \u201cNow that it\u2019s over \u2026 reality sets in that I\u2019m still ranked [191], there\u2019s so much to do before actually making it.<\/p>\n

\u201cI always thought I should be top 100 and it was just a matter of time, or I was injured or whatever it was. Now that it\u2019s happening and I\u2019m not just winning matches, I\u2019m winning really difficult matches back-to-back, it\u2019s proving to myself that I\u2019m exactly where I should be.\u201d<\/p>\n

Branstine always believed, because she\u2019s been among the world\u2019s best before.<\/p>\n

The 5-foot-11, right-handed hitter ranked No. 4 on the ITF\u2019s junior tour in 2017, a year she also won two Grand Slam junior doubles titles with Andreescu.<\/p>\n

Rather than jumping directly to the pros like many of her contemporaries, Branstine took the college route, a decision shaped largely by her injuries and the high cost of globetrotting on the tennis circuit.<\/p>\n

Branstine said her family\u2019s financial status growing up was \u201cmiddle-class for the most part.\u201d She even attended a private school for a few years.<\/p>\n

But when she was about 13, everything changed.<\/p>\n

As Branstine describes it, her father Bruce, a financial adviser, \u201cwas really fighting for us and trying to do something big, and things just didn\u2019t work out.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMy family lost everything,\u201d she added. \u201cIt went from living a very middle-class, solid, stable life to having to eat at my grandma\u2019s, and my parents couldn\u2019t even hardly pay for gas.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think a lot of people look at me and they\u2019re like, \u2018Oh, you\u2019re from Orange County\u2019 and all this stuff. It\u2019s not as glamorous as it looks when your parents are living paycheque-to-paycheque.\u201d<\/p>\n

In 2016, Branstine moved to Montreal to train at Tennis Canada\u2019s national centre and began representing her mother\u2019s native country the following year.<\/p>\n

Representing Canada over the United States was something she had envisioned even in her early tennis days.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m a first-generation American on my mom\u2019s side of the family, and it\u2019s a way of honouring that. And it\u2019s like, I am Canadian at the end of the day, I truly feel like I identify as a Canadian,\u201d she said, giving credit to Tennis Canada for its support since \u201cDay 1.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI love playing for Canada. It\u2019s the best thing ever.\u201d<\/p>\n

Val\u00e9rie T\u00e9treault, a former player who now serves as tournament director for the National Bank Open in Montreal, remembers Branstine arriving on the Canadian scene with powerful groundstrokes \u2013 and isn\u2019t surprised to see her rise up the ranks.<\/p>\n

\u201cSpeaks to the fact that you should always continue to believe in yourself,\u201d she said. \u201cThat was a great effort even against Aryna at Wimbledon. I didn\u2019t feel at all like she was overpowered on the court.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe can see that there\u2019s a path, there\u2019s a way that she can get to the top 50 and then really make a living out of the sport.\u201d<\/p>\n

As a next step to reach that goal, Branstine is investing in her career and hiring Belgian coach Gerald Moretti for the Montreal tournament.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can only afford that for however many months and weeks right now,\u201d she said. \u201c[But] I know if I want to make it top 100, top 50 and beyond, you have to do things the right way. There\u2019s no cutting corners.\u201d<\/p>\n

The recent success is also growing her following and opening the door to more opportunities for brand deals. She also plans to continue balancing her tennis career with modelling.<\/p>\n

The Uber Eats deliveries?<\/p>\n

\u201cAbsolutely not,\u201d she said. \u201cThat ship has sailed.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: Carson Branstine returns the ball to Aryna\u202fSabalenka during their first round women’s single…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":20004,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[901,888,902,879,877,903,49,48,876,895,896,891,878,875,46,549,295,894,887,914,880,881,893,889,890,884,904,885,909,910,912,907,911,905,908,882,898,899,714,897,906,82,865,61,900,892,886,883,913],"class_list":["post-20003","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-alberta","tag-arts-news","tag-bc","tag-breaking-news","tag-breaking-news-video","tag-british-columbia","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-canada-news","tag-canada-sports","tag-canada-sports-news","tag-canada-trafficcanada-weather","tag-canadian-breaking-news","tag-canadian-news","tag-economy","tag-education","tag-environment","tag-federal-government","tag-foreign-news","tag-globe-and-mail","tag-globe-and-mail-breaking-news","tag-globe-and-mail-canada-news","tag-government","tag-life-news","tag-lifestyle","tag-local-news","tag-manitoba","tag-national-news","tag-new-brunswick","tag-newfoundland-and-labrador","tag-northwest-territories","tag-nova-scotia","tag-nunavut","tag-ontario","tag-pei","tag-photos","tag-political-news","tag-political-opinion","tag-politics","tag-politics-news","tag-quebec","tag-sports","tag-sports-news","tag-technology","tag-travel","tag-trudeau","tag-us-news","tag-world-news","tag-yukon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20003","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20003"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20003\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20004"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20003"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20003"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20003"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}