Riding the Post-Tennis Wave with Nicole Gibbs

Former WTA pro Nicole Gibbs has a lot on her mind this June morning—a brain zigzagging seamlessly across topics that range from her neighborhood’s homeless population to politics to meditation to surfing to grappling with the meaning of tennis. Consider the 29-year-old Gibbs smack in the middle of the decompression period that accompanies life after pro tennis.

As Gibbs speaks, she’s sitting at a café in Venice, a Los Angeles neighborhood that’s long had a bohemian flavor to it. Gibbs lives in Venice with her husband, Jack Brody, and two-month-old daughter, Sky. Describing life as a parent, Gibbs says, “This is the most cosmic shift in my life ever. I did not know I ever wanted to be a mom. But now that I am, everything else feels stupid.”

Gibbs retired just over two years ago, in March 2020. “The first six months off the tour were extremely hard—a complete identity loss,” says Gibbs. Part of that time was spent completing her senior year at Stanford, the school she’d left in 2013 after winning her second consecutive NCAA singles championship. “It was great just being a student,” she says.

When it comes to sports, Gibbs estimates that since retiring, she’s held a racquet three times, instead preferring to surf. “It’s everything tennis isn’t,” she says, citing the connection to nature, spirituality and the lack of a crowd watching her every move.

Ranked as high as No. 68 in 2016, Gibbs’ tennis odyssey was a constant shuttle back-and-forth between WTA main draw events, the grind of qualifying to get into many of them, and the quest to earn more computer points at ITF tournaments. Gibbs recalls the juxtaposition of the bright sunshine and joy of Grand Slam competition at the Australian Open and then, in the dead of winter, heading to Midland, Michigan to play an ITF event—and losing in the first round. “That was a reality check,” she says.

WATCH: Gibbs took a star turn on My Tennis Life in 2017.

“What she did was incredibly hard,” says her father, Paul. A former college player, Paul had gotten Nicole into tennis by the time she was three. He taught Nicole the game, practiced with her all over the Cleveland area where the Gibbs family lived, found locals for her to compete against—20 sets in a typical week. “I’m incredibly thankful to my father for all he did,” says Nicole. “Now that I’m a mother, I’m even more struck by his devotion as a parent, going all-in to help me become a tennis player.”

Movement and consistency were Paul’s instructional cornerstones. Nicole and Paul both recall the time the two silently entered a court and hit 1,000 straight balls. At that point, like two characters in a play, exit father and daughter. The theatrical imagery here is no accident. Paul, an English teacher with a doctorate in philosophy, greatly enjoyed the plays of Samuel Beckett. Winner of the Nobel Prize in literature in 1969, one of Beckett’s most famous works is Waiting for the Godot, a tale of two characters endlessly waiting for another to show up—who never appears. Call Godot a theatrical version of a 1,000-ball rally.

When Nicole was 14, she and Paul moved to Los Angeles, Paul to teach English and coach the tennis team at Crossroads School for Arts & Sciences, Nicole to practice at the USTA’s Southern California training center. Paul’s goal was for Nicole to earn a college scholarship, perhaps even at a prestigious school like Stanford. Says Stanford coach Lele Forood, “The first time I saw her play, I noticed that no matter what, she always won the big points. I could tell she was going to win tons in college.” By age 17, Gibbs headed north to Palo Alto.

Life as a pro was tough. Gibbs’ match record in 2015 was 29-30. At the end of that year, sitting inside Los Angeles International Airport while waiting to board a flight to Costa Rica, Gibbs authored a Facebook post that detailed much of what had happened. Her journey included 15 first round losses, eight broken racquets, four coaches and a ranking that plummeted from No. 84 to No. 154. “I cried and swore I would quit tennis at least 20 times,” wrote Gibbs. She also wrote this: “Ever tried? Ever failed? No matter try again. Fail again. Fail better.”

This too was from Beckett—though Gibbs confesses she was first aware of those words when she heard about them being written in a tattoo on Stan Wawrinka’s arm. The confession proved cathartic, Gibbs in 2016 enjoying her best year. “I was blown away by everything she did,” says Paul. “It went beyond my wildest dreams.”

I do feel that, as a female athlete, I have a unique responsibility to the feminist movement. Women have had a serious uphill battle for respect and reasonable compensation in the sports world. I think it’s important that female athletes (and especially tennis players) give a nod to pioneers like Billie Jean King by embracing feminism and continuing the push for equality. Nicole Gibbs to the New Yorker in 2017

At the beginning of 2017, a New Yorker article explored Gibbs’ deep interest in politics and social justice—an intellectual curiosity nurtured by Paul since childhood. Nicole’s mother, Leslie, a longstanding marketing executive who’s worked for such corporations as Procter & Gamble and Bonne Bell, had also been a lifelong role model.

The story, written by Gerald Marzorati, noted these words from Martin Luther King that were featured on Gibbs’ Twitter page: “Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.” Gibbs also said this in the piece: “I do feel that, as a female athlete, I have a unique responsibility to the feminist movement. Women have had a serious uphill battle for respect and reasonable compensation in the sports world. I think it’s important that female athletes (and especially tennis players) give a nod to pioneers like Billie Jean King by embracing feminism and continuing the push for equality.” Says Paul, “Her ambition is justice and trying to figure out how to help people.”

Two years later, during a routine dental visit, a small growth in Gibbs’ mouth turned out to be oral cancer—a variation so rare that Gibbs was told she’d only been the 13th person to ever been recorded having it. Gibbs is happy to report a “clean bill of health.”

More recently, there’s been the whole matter of understanding her relationship to tennis. “I pretty much actively hated tennis for most of my career,” Gibbs says. Thankful for all the good tennis did for her, deeply appreciative for Paul’s years of instruction, Gibbs also concedes that the feistiness that helped her win many a match was not the best representation of herself. “At times she was pressing too much,” says Forood. “She’d get a little too angry on the court.” Says Gibbs, “Screaming ‘come on’ in my opponent’s face when I won a point didn’t align with my social principles.”

While Sky is unquestionably priority one, other possibilities dance around Gibbs’ mind. She’s set to start law school at UCLA this fall and is pondering what it might be like to work in law, public policy, charities. “There are two different stories,” says Gibbs. “There’s finding a lot of balance and there’s leaning into motherhood. Either will be great.”