Wimbledon 2025: Aryna Sabalenka breezes past Canadian model and delivery agent Carson Branstine; enters second round

Time of India

21 hours ago

London:
Carson Branstine owned the stage even if it was only in bits and bobs — a few games, a string of points scattered across the 74-minute opening-round clash — with the sun beating down on Wimbledon's Court No.1.
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Aryna Sabalenka, the top-seed, claimed an emphatic 6-1, 7-5 win, but in an affair that was all about the Canadian's spirit the score line didn't really count. Branstine's story is unlike any other in tennis, ask the spectators, who gave her a standing ovation.
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Branstine, ranked 194, impressed in the qualifying here, where she beat the top-seed Lois Boisson. That's when she started narrating her story. In a world where people are quick to complain about the lack of support and funds from federations and sponsors, the Canadian chose to veer from the straight and narrow to write her own script.
The 24-year-old represented the United States before switching to Canada, the birth country of her mother, in 2017. That year, she reached a career-high junior ranking of No.4, after winning the Australian and French Open doubles titles with good friend Bianca Andreescu. After battling injuries for several years, she played collegiate tennis in the United States.
Branstine has taught tennis, worked as an Uber Eats delivery agent, besides modelled to help fund her tennis career.
'The modelling industry is not very consistent,' she says. 'When I'm travelling for tennis, I may miss 10-20 jobs.'
'You have to go to castings, and there's the fittings, and it takes a little bit of time sometimes,' she said of the industry. 'A lot of the jobs I've done have been last minute. I'm like, okay, great, I can, squeeze this in somehow. But there's much more to my story than just the modelling.'
Branstine said just because she models and lives in Orange, California, people think she has everything.
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The Canadian, who hails from a working class background, with her parents – father Bruce and mother Carol Freeman – continuing to work well into their 60s.
'The last thing you want to do after they put you through college, is to go back to your parents and ask them for more,' she said, underlining that all the jobs she did on the side was to fund her tennis.
In February, just before she left for Cancun in Mexico to play a WTA125, she realised she had just $26 in her account and was in tears.
'During that same time, I was doing Uber Eats, deliveries. I put in my bio, I'm a broke athlete. Please help. And so people gave me extra tips. The American tipping culture is pretty good still,' she said. 'My last Uber Eats delivery was literally the same day I took a flight to Cancun, I landed at 9 am and played my first match at 4pm. That was kind of the kick start to my being here right now.
'When I tell people this, they laugh at me. You can look in my reviews I've delivered with care.'
Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas, the 24th seed, retired against French qualifier Valentin Royer when trailing 3-6, 2-6.