Jennifer Brady is on texting terms with an all-time great, told the world her twin sister is "a nerd" in a news conference, and refuelled with twice-daily orders of takeaway food during her Melbourne quarantine.
Naomi Osaka is commanding almost all the attention, but the 'other' Australian Open women's finalist is a peppy character who could head home to the United States next week as a grand slam winner for the first time.
She reached the US Open semi-finals last year too, and has now become the eighth American woman to reach the final of a singles major in the 21st century.
We should talk more about her.
So who's her famous friend?
Brady was born in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, and moved with her family to Florida as a nine-year-old, but "not for tennis".
Sucks to that. At the age of 10 she joined Chris Evert's academy in Boca Raton, learning the ways of the 18-time grand slam winner.
But Brady admits she "had a bit of a temper as a kid" and lacked mental sturdiness, which might just be why it has taken her until the age of 25 to make a major breakthrough.
Evert recognised her talent from an early age though.
"Chrissie messages me every now and then a lot," said Brady. "She is somebody who has seen me since I was 10, 11 years old. So she's probably known me the longest out here.
"It's awesome to have someone like her in your corner, supporting you and cheering for you."
Why haven't we heard about Brady before?
All sports have sliding doors moments and if Michael Geserer had not come into Brady's life, who is to say she would have scaled such heights as these.
Coach Geserer was nudged Brady's way in 2019 by a mutual acquaintance, American coach Billy Heiser, and her career has been on an upwards trajectory ever since.
A promising junior but an unfulfilled talent as a professional, Brady was approaching her mid-20s and searching for direction.
She had already taken the college route into professional sport, playing at the University of California, Los Angeles. Doing so gave initial life to a career that could have been lost to the drip, drip pain of one painful defeat after another while still a junior.
As Brady recalled: "I took a hit there and thought, 'OK, maybe I'm not meant for this sport. Maybe I'm not good enough. I'll go to college for four years and then I'll find a real job.'"
What happened next?
From 55th in the world at the end of 2019, Brady leapt to 24th after the abridged 2020 season. Now the top 10 is beckoning. Her game is suddenly dynamite.
Geserer is German, and Brady took a leap of faith by leaving Florida behind from July to December last year to train in her coach's favoured environment, teaching herself to handle homesickness.
"Once you become too comfortable, I think that's when you're in trouble," Brady said. "Going over and training in Germany, at times I might be, like, 'OK, I wish I was home'. But other times, I'm like, 'OK, it's worth it'.
"I have to do what I have to do to become the best tennis player right now and then afterwards I can live my life."
What. A. Quote. And here's another...
Brady has a twin, Jessica. On Thursday, Jessica copped one in a Melbourne Park news conference.
Asked whether her sister plays tennis at all, Brady was cheekily brutal, saying that Jessica "gave up" and explaining: "She's a nerd. She studies. She's in medical school. So she has the brains and I have the athletic genes."
Everything's Hunky Dory with Brady
Hunky Dory is at the classier end of Melbourne's takeaway outlets, and Brady makes no bones about declaring she would order takeout from there while in hard quarantine before the Australian Open began.
Confined to a hotel bedroom for a fortnight, Brady called in orders for "the first seven days, every single day, sometimes twice a day".
But if delicious deliveries of fast food were on the menu, fast fixes of entertainment emphatically were not.
"I didn't watch one Netflix series just because I knew if I started something then I wouldn't want to do anything else except just lay in bed and watch Netflix," Brady said.
She knows Osaka is 'magnificent'
Why deny it? Brady first faced Osaka on the professional tour at a tiny $50,000 event in New Braunfels, Texas, in 2014.
She beat the 17-year-old Osaka that day but has lost both their encounters since. It was Osaka, on her way to a third grand slam title, who ended Brady's US Open run last September.
When a reporter asked Brady at last year's US Open, 'Obviously Naomi is magnificent. What makes her so magnificent?', Brady slung out a raft of compliments.
And this week she cast her mind back to that 2014 clash, recalling: "I was, like, 'Wow, she hits the ball huge. She's gonna be good. OK, she's got something special.'"
She's not afraid to be afraid, but she's going to own any fears
Brady knows Saturday's final is a big deal and it is not her nature to spout "just another game" cliches, as some might.
"I'll definitely be nervous 100 per cent, but there is no hiding it. I just have to embrace it and enjoy the moment," she said. "I think I have earned the right to be sitting here, to be playing in a final, in a grand slam final."
She wants to find focus and to make the biggest moment of her career even bigger. That's now the Jennifer Brady way.
"But there's gonna be moments, there's gonna be games, there's gonna be points where I'm going to be thinking about, 'Wow, this could be my first grand slam title," Brady said. "I will definitely have those thoughts."
Emma Raducanu records impressive victory over Angelique Kerber in Stuttgart
Emma Raducanu claimed an emphatic 6-2 6-1 win over former two-time champion Angelique Kerber in the last 32 of the Porsche Grand Prix in Stuttgart.
Fresh from helping Great Britain reach the finals of the Billie Jean Cup at the weekend, Raducanu continued her promising form on clay by breezing past the home favourite.
Both Raducanu and Kerber were playing as wild cards in Stuttgart, with the Briton tumbling down the rankings after time out to undergo three surgeries.
Meanwhile former world number one Kerber only recently returned from 18 months out on maternity leave.
Raducanu got off to a flying start by breaking Kerber in the opening game and despite an immediate response from the German, the 2021 US Open champion took control and claimed the first set in 41 minutes.
Kerber was broken again at the start of the second set and although she managed to haul back level, Raducanu stepped up a gear and shrugged off a brief visit from the trainer to wrap up an emphatic win.
Also in Stuttgart, reigning US Open champion Coco Gauff rallied from 4-2 down in the deciding set to overcome fellow American and world number 134 Sachia Vickery 6-3 4-6 7-5.
And Tunisia’s Ons Jabeur finally snapped a five-game losing streak to beat Ekaterina Alexandrova 2-6 6-3 7-6 (1), telling reporters: “I thought about withdrawing so many times because I couldn’t take another loss.”
In Rouen, Naomi Osaka’s return to clay was cut short by a 6-4 6-2 first round defeat to Martina Trevisan.
Like Kerber, Osaka only recently returned to the tour following maternity leave, and was competing as a wild card.
In the Oeiras Ladies Open in Portugal, Britain’s fifth-seeded Harriet Dart suffered a 6-3 6-1 defeat to home player Matilde Jorge.
Rafael Nadal’s Barcelona Open hopes ended by Alex de Minaur
Rafael Nadal’s latest comeback bid came to an end as he was well beaten 7-5 6-1 by fourth seed Alex de Minaur at the Barcelona Open.
The 37-year-old was playing just his second tournament in 15 months after suffering another hip problem at his comeback event in Brisbane in January.
And having intimated that this will be his final year before retirement, Nadal’s defeat was likely to mark his final appearance at a tournament he has won 12 times.
Having overcome Italian Flavio Cobolli in the opening round, Nadal faced a much sterner test against the in-form De Minaur and was sent scampering around the court in a tight opening set which was edged by the Australian.
De Minaur went on to step up a gear, securing a double break over the Spaniard and racing over the line behind a strong service game on which he did not drop a single point in the second set.
Jack Draper made the most of a rain delay to defeat wild card Rudolf Molleker and reach the quarter-finals of the BMW Open in Munich.
German Molleker, ranked 179th, had been the better player in the first set but a brief stoppage ahead of the second set changed the momentum of the contest.
Draper began to assert his powerful game after the resumption and lost only two more games, pulling away to claim a 4-6 6-1 6-1 victory.
In the last eight the British number two, who is ranked 46th, will take on either third seed Taylor Fritz or Spanish qualifier Alejandro Moro Canas.
Speaking in an on-court interview, Draper said: “I think Rudy played an amazing level in the first set. The conditions were very rainy and very slow. In the second and third, the sun comes out and I start feeling better. I’m really proud of the way I played.”
Rafael Nadal eases past Flavio Cobolli on return to action in Barcelona
Rafael Nadal made a triumphant return to the match court with victory over Flavio Cobolli in the first round of the Barcelona Open.
The 37-year-old was playing just his second tournament in 15 months after suffering another injury problem in his hip muscle at his comeback event in Brisbane in January.
Nadal only committed to playing at the tournament he has won 12 times on Monday but there was not much rust on display as he eased to a 6-2 6-3 victory over 21-year-old Italian Cobolli in his first match on clay since he won his 14th French Open title in 2022.
Nadal received a hero’s welcome as he strode out onto the court that bears his name and, although there were a few loose forehands in the early stages, the former world number one was too solid for Cobolli.
Cobolli understandably looked nervous and contributed to the scoreline with far too many errors, but a big factor in that was the pressure being exerted from the other end of the court.
A blip came when Nadal, who is set to retire at some point this season, played a poor game to drop serve for the first time in the third game of the second set but he had already broken Cobolli and quickly restored his advantage.
There were some vintage forehands from Nadal in the final stages and he clinched victory when Cobolli netted a final backhand, thrusting his fist into the air.
The home favourite faces a real test next, though, when he takes on in-form fourth seed Alex De Minaur.
Meanwhile, second seed Andrey Rublev destroyed his racket at the end of a 6-4 7-6 (6) defeat by Brandon Nakashima that continued his poor run of form.
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