Model Carson Branstine is making her Wimbledon debut on Monday after making it through the qualifying rounds last week. She didn’t just step off a runway and pick up a racket, but she’s still going about her tennis career in a unique way.
The former Texas A&M tennis player, who was part of a national title team in 2024, doesn’t have any sponsors, she doesn’t have a full-time coach, or an entourage. She’s funded her tennis career up to this point through modeling gigs.
Model Carson Branstine played tennis in college at Texas A&M. (Photo by Gerald Leong/NCAA Photos via Getty Images)
Finally, something is going right for a good-looking athlete. Branstine won three matches in the qualifying rounds, including a win over Lois Boisson, a French Open semi-finalist.
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“I love being in front of the camera during a shoot. It’s fun, I love fashion. It’s been one of the reasons I’ve been able to pay some of my trips,” she said of her career, reports The Sun.
“I didn’t want to ask my parents for anything. I wanted everything to come from me and from my tennis. I wasn’t signed by these agencies because of my tennis, it was for my look.”
Carson Branstine is ready to make some noise at Wimbledon
Branstine sees similarities between her two careers. She said, “Modeling and tennis are weirdly similar: you are an object a lot, and people sometimes forget you’re a person too.”
In order to keep luck on her side, the current 194th-ranked player, according to WTA Tennis, will have to beat the tournament favorite and current No. 1 ranked Aryna Sabalenka.
Not an ideal match-up, but all things considered, Branstine will take it. She wrote on social media after finding out who she would be facing, “Maybe one day I’ll get a good draw LOL.”
Who wouldn’t love to see the underdog pull off a major upset?
A tennis player funding her career with modeling knocks off the No. 1 ranked player in the world. That’s a made-for-TV movie waiting to happen.
The Sun reports that she’s battled several injuries over the years, and had surgeries on both hips and her knees, to get where she is. That hasn’t slowed down her modeling, but it’s made it a difficult journey to Wimbledon for the 24-year-old.
Win or lose, something tells me Carson Branstine is going to be just fine.
