Naomi Broady: Taking the long way round to the French Open

INTERVIEW: The Briton has truly earnt her place at this year's Grand Slam in Paris, paying her own way to pick up ranking points in every corner of the earth

Naomi Broady competing in Madrid (Getty)

When Naomi Broady takes her place in the main draw of the French Open later this month she might reflect on her remarkable journey. The 26-year-old Briton, whose only previous appearances at Grand Slam level have been courtesy of Wimbledon wild cards, has spent the last 10 years travelling around some of her sport’s more obscure outposts. At long last, however, her ranking is high enough – she is currently the world No 80 - to secure a place at the most lofty tables.

Roland Garros will be a very different experience to some others of recent years. As an example, take the tournament she played two years ago at Namangan in Uzbekistan, where her prize money for winning the title was just $3,919 (about £2,700).

“After the tournament I was playing the next week in Japan and had to take an eight-hour taxi ride across Uzbekistan by myself,” Broady recalled. “In circumstances like that the tournament organises the taxi for you, but you don’t know anything about your driver.

“My Dad said: ‘Text me every half an hour so that I know you’re fine.’ However my cellphone signal cut out for about four hours while we were going through the mountains.

“Thankfully the driver was a good person and he got me there safely. But you’re up a mountain in the middle of nowhere, completely by yourself, and anything can happen to you. I’m a 6ft 2in blonde so it’s not like I blend in with anywhere I go.”

Broady, supported by her family, has had to fend for herself ever since a fall-out with the Lawn Tennis Association nine years ago, when the governing body objected to photographs posted on a social networking website.

She has had to pay her own way around the globe in search of the ranking points which finally took her into the world’s top 100 earlier this year. From Balikpapan in Indonesia to Puebla in Mexico, from Pingguo in China to the Hawaiian island of Maui and from Lagos to Havana, Broady has become an expert on budget airlines and cheap hotels. There have been times, nevertheless, especially since she took on Andrew Fitzpatrick as her travelling coach last summer, when she has been unable to make ends meet.

Naomi Broady competing in Miami (Getty)

Earlier this year Broady had to borrow money off her brother Liam – another player who has fought through hardships to make his way as a professional – to buy her air ticket from Hawaii to her next tournament in Michigan. She also had to wait for her prize money from the Australian Open qualifying event before paying for her passage to Doha.

“I’m still struggling,” Broady said. “Everyone says: ‘You’re flying now you’re in the top 100.’ But until I get into the Grand Slam main draws I won’t receive the benefits from it. Because I’m travelling with Andrew week in and week out the money is going out as quickly as it’s coming in. But it’s definitely paying off. Hopefully after the French Open and Wimbledon and the US Open I’ll finally have some money in my bank.”

Broady’s biggest pay cheque away from a Grand Slam tournament was the $15,200 (about £10,400) she earned at an ITF event she won in Midland in the United States three months ago. Her total career earnings since her professional debut 10 years ago amount to just $532,522 (about £364,000). However, at the French Open she will earn 30,000 euros (about £23,700) even if she loses in the first round. Wimbledon will pay £30,000 to first-round losers.

“It’s 100 per cent certain that I wouldn’t be playing now if I hadn’t received the wild cards from the All England Club the last few years,” she said. “That’s the only reason that I was able to carry on playing. They funded my year completely.”

If the travelling has sometimes been difficult – until last year she was often travelling on her own - what Broady has found on arrival at some venues has been even more of a challenge. “Just give me a clean room and I’m fine, but there are a lot of times where you won’t even take off your flip-flops, the water’s brown and you barely eat,” she said.

“But you learn from that. If I know I’m travelling to a country where I’m possibly not going to be able to eat, I pack a lot of food with me. I take super noodles and Ainsley Harriott couscous, along with a little Tupperware box to take it with you to the courts. You just need to be able to boil some water. We’ve got a little travel kettle that we take with us because sometimes you can’t even get one of them at the courts.”

She added: “I’ve come home really thin from some places because I’ve barely eaten since I’ve been there, though I’ve never been ill. I’m very careful everywhere I go, because obviously not everywhere where we go is safe, especially at the moment. You have to be super-vigilant. I was in Sharm El Sheikh playing tournaments when that first went on high alert. I’m just on high alert all the time, sub-consciously thinking: ‘Who’s that person? Why are they stood there? Whose is that bag’?”

Broady said that travelling with Fitzpatrick had been a significant factor in her improved fortunes on the court. At 27 he is one of the youngest coaches. Having reached a career-high position of No 461 in the world rankings, he became a hitting partner with Sloane Stephens, when she was being coached by Paul Annacone, and with Caroline Wozniacki.

“I’ve known Andrew since we were really young,” Broady said. “It’s been a great help just having the consistency of someone with me day in and day out to support me, to get me into routines – warming up, cooling down, stretching – and doing more stuff off court in the gym. It’s good just having someone there to remind you of the things you’re working on, and if you’ve had a bad day to get feedback from that, and to keep yourself motivated.”

She added: “I always used to be very up and down in my results. I think that’s what changed in the second half of last year. Andrew said when we started working together: ‘Let’s just try to make sure that we play at least two or three matches each week.’ Rather than going in thinking ‘I’m going to try to win this tournament’, we’ve been saying: ‘We’ll get two or three matches in this week.’

“Then when you get used to playing quarters and semis each week, you’ll find your rhythm every now and then and you’ll win the tournament. So just through playing that many matches each week, I’m really match-tight at the moment. It shows in that I’m often coming through tighter matches in the tie-breakers.”

Naomi Broady competing at the Malaysia Open (Getty)

Making the top 100 and being in the main draws of the Grand Slam events was a major target for this year. Now Broady has her eyes on a place in the top 50. “I want to keep going up,” she said. “I’m not at all intimidated by the next benchmark.”

With her huge serve – Judy Murray says she should set her sights on becoming “the John Isner of women’s tennis” – and big game, Broady can cut an intimidating figure on the court. She gives as good as she gets, as she showed in a feisty on-court confrontation with Jelena Ostapenko in Auckland this year, when she suggested that the umpire should disqualify her opponent for throwing her racket in the direction of a ball boy.

Does Broady think that all the experiences she has gone through have helped to harden her up on the court? “Being from Stockport I think I was born a bit like that,” she smiled. “But if you’ve worked hard to get there. I think it definitely makes you fight on the court. When you’ve had to go through a lot before you even step on the court, you’re not going to give up just because you go a break down in the third set. There’s no way you’re going to roll over and give that match away.”