{"id":515078,"date":"2026-04-06T00:58:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-06T00:58:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/515078\/"},"modified":"2026-04-06T00:58:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-06T00:58:08","slug":"it-can-be-overwhelming-talia-gibson-on-her-rapid-rise-and-going-toe-to-toe-with-the-big-hitters-tennis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/515078\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018It can be overwhelming\u2019: Talia Gibson on her rapid rise and going toe-to-toe with the big hitters | Tennis"},"content":{"rendered":"

She is the little-known Australian who has the tennis world talking, with the power to go toe-to-toe with the biggest hitters in the game.<\/p>\n

Talia Gibson became the youngest player in seven years to reach a quarter-final in her debut at one of the not-quite-grand-slam tournaments \u2013 known as WTA 1000s \u2013 last month, as part of an eye-catching run during which she beat five top 20-ranked players<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Despite her coaches spending years reminding her of her immense potential, the admittedly shy 21-year-old agrees she is only now beginning to believe.<\/p>\n

\u201cSomething that I\u2019ve reflected on the most was how much more belief I think I should have had in myself,\u201d she says, speaking from her home town of Perth before the Billie Jean King Cup tie in Melbourne against Great Britain which starts on Friday.<\/p>\n

At Indian Wells at the start of March, she won through qualifying then reeled off victories against Ekaterina Alexandrova (ranked 11), Clara Tauson (17) and Jasmine Paolini<\/a> (7) before losing against the world No 14 Linda Noskova in three sets.<\/p>\n

Gibson immediately proved that run was no fluke, the following week in Miami. Again she won through the qualifiers, and defeated the 15th-ranked Naomi Osaka<\/a> and the world No 17 Iva Jovic before losing to the Australian Open champion and world No 2, Elena Rybakina<\/a>, in the round of 16.<\/p>\n

Though Gibson didn\u2019t win either tournament, she had put the tennis world on notice. Before March, the WTA website had not even uploaded a profile photo of her. Now, she is on the verge of the top 50. \u201cIt was a sort of pinch-me moment when I was getting those wins,\u201d Gibson says. \u201cIt just made me realise that I was capable.<\/p>\n

Graph showing Talia Gibson\u2019s rise up the WTA rankings to No 56<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cMe being able to actually see that happen, it was a bit of an eye-opener for me.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought, before it happened, I\u2019ll kind of \u2018believe it when I see it\u2019, really. And I think that\u2019s probably one thing, on reflection, that I could have done better.\u201d<\/p>\n

Suddenly, she is Australia\u2019s second-highest ranked player (after another new arrival in 19-year-old Maya Joint), even if Gibson has been well-known in local tennis circles for years. At 15 she was awarded the female junior athlete of the year at the 2019 Australian tennis awards. Three years later, at 18, she won it again.<\/p>\n

But in a sport where the world\u2019s top 10 often features teenagers, such as today\u2019s formidable young duo Victoria Mboko and Mirra Andreeva, Gibson was no prodigy. Indeed, there has been more media attention given to Emerson Jones, the 17-year-old who is also in Australia\u2019s team for this week\u2019s Billie Jean King Cup tie.<\/p>\n

Gibson plays a forehand while beating and former world No 1 Naomi Osaka at the Miami Open. Photograph: Michele Eve Sandberg\/Zuma Press Wire\/Shutterstock<\/p>\n

That was, until last month. Gibson\u2019s run at Indian Wells was described by Sports Illustrated as \u201ca week to remember\u201d. By the time she reached Miami, one Tennis<\/a> Channel commentator described Gibson as \u201ca train that cannot be stopped\u201d and a player with top 10 potential.<\/p>\n

Tumaini Carayol, the Guardian\u2019s UK-based tennis writer, was in the US and saw the Australian\u2019s run first-hand. \u201cGibson had been under the radar for a while, even after winning various titles on the ITF circuit, but by beating five top 20 opponents in two of the biggest tournaments on the circuit, she has made her progress impossible to ignore,\u201d he says. \u201cThere will be many more eyes on her now.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gibson is starting to understand that the spotlight is part of life of as a top professional. \u201cIt\u2019s a big step going from nobody really knowing who you are,\u201d she says. \u201cWhen you kind of start to have that success, there\u2019s a lot of people that want to get your thoughts on all of it. Sometimes it can be overwhelming.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fortunately, she feels she has the support to succeed, even if she was surprised by its sheer volume. \u201cIt was a little bit shocking to me to see how many people are actually keeping track of how I\u2019m doing and the success that I\u2019m having,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

Gibson describes herself as a \u201cpretty ordinary\u201d woman from Perth, who likes going to the beach and spending time with friends. But unlike most of us, she spends most of her time travelling on a tennis tour with extraordinary physical and mental demands, where every moment is captured and scrutinised.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m more of a shy, kind of quiet person,\u201d Gibson says. \u201cSo I think when it comes to doing stuff like interviews and meeting new people and doing media, and stuff where you\u2019re interacting with people \u2013 you know, the public and everything \u2013 it\u2019s forced me to step outside my comfort zone.\u201d<\/p>\n

On the court, she looks increasingly comfortable. This year she has won more than three out of every four service games, a ratio that is among the top 20 in the world despite her challenging opposition. A return game is developing but the forehand she hit on match point against Paolini in Indian Wells for the biggest win of her career underlined her growing reputation as one of the tour\u2019s gunslingers.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of people would say I\u2019m probably one of the most aggressive players out there, and I wouldn\u2019t disagree with that,\u201d she says. \u201cBut I hope that one day, they\u2019re able to add a few more adjectives to it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"She is the little-known Australian who has the tennis world talking, with the power to go toe-to-toe with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":515079,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[101,118,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-515078","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-sports","9":"tag-tennis","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/515078","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=515078"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/515078\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/515079"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=515078"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=515078"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=515078"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}