NEW YORK—Working on Nicole Gibbs’ My Tennis Life series over the past few months, we at TENNIS.com and Tennis Channel have had the privilege of getting to know the 24-year-old on a more personal level.
She’s tenacious, funny, determined and extremely open.
The Stanford Cardinal has had her fair share of ups and downs in her brief career, which Ed McGrogan brilliantly covered in his piece following her first-round win over Verónica Cepede Royg on Tuesday.
Coming into the US Open, Gibbs was coming off one of those down periods. Ranked 127th—her career high was No. 68 just last summer—the American missed a large portion of the season to rehab a leg injury and lost seven straight matches between the Australian Open and the French Open. On the season, she’d won just three main-draw WTA matches.
But at Flushing Meadows last week she found her form, defeating Francesca Di Lorenzo, Patty Schnyder and Naomi Broady in succession to reach the main draw of the season’s final Slam.