Carson Branstine (born September 9, 2000) is a Canadian-American
tennis player. She reached a career-high singles ranking of world No. 337 on June 24, 2024. Branstine also reached a career-high doubles ranking of world No. 203 on September 18, 2017, and a career-high ITF junior ranking of No. 4 on July 17, 2017. She won the 2017
Australian Open and
French Open junior doubles titles with
Bianca Andreescu.[1][2] Branstine represented the United States from 2014 to February 2017, but started representing Canada, the birth country of her mother, in March 2017.[3]
Early life
Branstine was born in
Irvine, California, to an American father, Bruce, and a Canadian mother, Carol Freeman, from
Toronto. She has two older sisters, Cassidy and Constance, both of whom play collegiate tennis.[4] Her cousin
Freddie Freeman is a professional baseball first baseman and MVP for the
Los Angeles Dodgers of
Major League Baseball (MLB).[5] Carson began playing tennis at the age of 7. After spending a few years training at the
USTA, Branstine accepted an offer from
Tennis Canada to train at the National Training Centre in Montreal, starting in October 2016.[6]
Tennis career
2014–15
Branstine played her first junior tournament in November 2014 at the ITF G4 in Atlanta and won the doubles title.[7] Two weeks later at the G4 in Boca Raton, she captured her first junior singles title and also won in doubles.[8] In March 2015, she played her first professional tournament, losing to
Karolína Stuchlá in the first round of the $10k in Gainesville, Florida.[9] In June 2015, she won the doubles title at the G4 in Haverford, Pennsylvania.[10] Branstine qualified for her first junior Grand Slam main draw at the
US Open in September, but lost to Evgeniya Levashova in the opening round. She also reached the second round in doubles.[11]
2016
In March, Branstine captured her second junior singles title with a victory over Ann Li at the G4 in Newport Beach, California.[12] She won her third junior singles title in June at the ITF G4 in Plantation, Florida.[13] In September, she reached the quarterfinals in singles of the junior
US Open, upsetting the No. 2 seed
Olesya Pervushina in the second round.[14] In November, she advanced to the semifinals in doubles at the $50k
Toronto Challenger with partner
Elena Bovina.[15] Also in November, she reached the doubles semifinals at the ITF GA in Mexico City.[16] In December, Branstine made it to the semifinals in singles and to the quarterfinals in doubles at the Eddie Herr ITF G1 in Bradenton, Florida.[17] The following week, she advanced to the semifinals of the GA
Orange Bowl.[18]
2017
In January at the
Australian Open, Branstine reached the third round in girls' singles and captured the doubles title with
Bianca Andreescu.[1] She started representing Canada officially in March and played her first tournament as a Canadian at the G1 in Carson, California at the end of the month, where she went on to win both the singles and doubles titles.[3][19] In June at the junior event of the
French Open, Branstine lost in the opening round in singles, but won her second straight major doubles title with Bianca Andreescu.[2] In July at the G1 in
Roehampton, she won the doubles title with
Marta Kostyuk.[20] At
Wimbledon, she lost in the quarterfinals in singles and in the semifinals in doubles with Kostyuk, ending her hopes of winning a third straight junior doubles Grand Slam title.[21] In August at the
Rogers Cup, she was awarded a wildcard into the doubles main draw with compatriot Bianca Andreescu, her first WTA Tour main draw. They upset
Kristina Mladenovic and
Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in the first round, before falling to the top seeds,
Ekaterina Makarova and
Elena Vesnina.[22] At the junior
US Open in September, Branstine was defeated in the second round in both singles and doubles.[23] The following week at the
Tournoi de Québec, she advanced with Andreescu to her first WTA Tour doubles final in which they were defeated by the top-seeded
Tímea Babos and
Andrea Hlaváčková.[24]
College tennis
Branstine made the decision to accept a full scholarship at the
University of Southern California in 2019, and transferred to the
University of Virginia, after spending a redshirt season at USC. She did not play the tennis season at USC or Virginia due to injury. Branstine majored in Society, Ethics and Law with a minor in Philosophy. She transferred to
Texas A&M where she played two seasons of college tennis. During her collegiate career, she reached a career-high ITA ranking of No. 2 in doubles and No. 8 in singles.
Branstine returned to the Aggies for the 2024 postseason, contributing to the team winning their first
NCAA championship.[25]