Wimbledon star reveals what her exact bank balance was only weeks before £66k win

Wimbledon player Carson Branstine was barely getting by only a few weeks ago. As a player ranked a lowly 194th by the WTA, she is not automatically granted entry to the big-money tournaments on tour. And so, in the months leading up to Wimbledon, she was among the many lesser-known competitors just trying to make ends meet.

Branstine took some of the pressure off by banking just over £6.5k for making it to the Cancun Tennis Open final in February. But before that, her finances had got to the point that she was forced to turn to more modest means of making money in order to put food on the table and keep her car running.

She told Telegraf.rs: "I live in Southern California, and just filling up the tank was seriously draining my bill. I remember one morning, a couple of weeks before I played my first WTA final in Cancun, I looked at my account balance and only had $26 (£19).

"I thought about how I was going to finance myself for the tournament. I cried. I called my friends, I wasn't allowed to call my parents - if they found out, they would be very angry. I just said to myself, 'Don't think too much. Do it.' And so after training I drove around Los Angeles and delivered dinners to people."

After a string of underwhelming results, Branstine made another £10k for coming through the qualifiers and losing in the second round of the Libema Open last month.

A mega Wimbledon payday would follow shortly afterwards. After beating French Open semi-finalist Lois Boisson and US Open winner Bianca Andreescu in qualifying, Branstine was granted entry to the main draw.

The Canadian, who supplements her income with modelling work and attracted a host of new fans during her time in the SW19 spotlight, lost in straight sets to top seed Aryna Sabalenka, but that was enough for a whopping £66k.

"It was so much fun, I didn't want it to end," she said. "I'm very happy with how everything turned out. Honestly, I don't know if 'processing' is the right word. Everything was too much, everything happened quickly and I try to enjoy every moment.

"Maybe now that it's all over, I'll have time to really process it. But this was amazing. I am proud of myself for many reasons. I fought many battles, not only financially, but also physically. And when I see that all my hard work has paid off, the feeling is incredible."