TENNIS runs through the blood of Brandon Holt – not that the surname gives it away.
Now the former collegiate star is making a name for himself on the professional circuit.
And he can count on his mother for plenty of wisdom on how to reach the top of the game.
That is because Holt, 25, is the middle son of former world No1 and three-time Grand Slam winner Tracy Austin.
Austin, one of FIVE professional tennis player siblings alongside Pam, Jeff, Doug and John, enjoyed a hugely-successful career, bursting on to the tennis scene as a teenager.
She won her first professional title a month after turning 14, went pro aged 15 and was a major champion by 16 when she beat Chris Evert in the 1979 US Open final in September – months after ending Evert’s 125-match winning streak on clay.
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Seven months after her Flushing Meadows glory, she became world No1 at just 17 and then teamed up with brother John in the mixed doubles at Wimbledon to become the first brother-sister duo to win a Grand Slam.
Austin regained her US Open singles crown in 1981, recovering from losing the first set 6-1 against Martina Navratilova.
The teenage sensation beat a 13-year-old Steffi Graf in the German’s first pro match and racked up her 30th career singles title in 1982, still before her 20th birthday.
But sadly that victory in San Diego would prove to be her final tournament win as her career derailed due to back injuries and sciatica.
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Austin played intermittently throughout the rest of the 1980s but needed lengthy spells away from the court.
Then any hopes of a full comeback were dashed in August 1989 by a horror near-fatal road accident.
A van crashed into the driver’s side of her vehicle, leaving Austin with a bruised heart, a bruised spleen, a sprained back and a shattered knee.
She became the youngest inductee to the Hall of Fame – when she was just 29 – and then retired for good in 1994.
Austin, though, remains a popular figure in the game and is a regular fixture on TV screens both in the UK and the US – including providing expert punditry for the BBC during Wimbledon.
Away from the sport, she married Scott Holt and now Brandon, brother of Sean and Dylan, is continuing the family tradition in tennis.
The Californian, born in April 1998, excelled at the University of Southern California after reaching the 2015 US Open junior doubles final – losing to Canadian pair Felix Auger-Aliassime and Denis Shapovalov.
Then Holt got his senior Grand Slam debut at his home major in 2022 where he battled through qualifying and was pitted against tenth-seed Taylor Fritz in round one.
The inexperienced star – who fishes and plays guitar to relax – lost the set but fought back to win in four, securing £97,500 in prize money and his first top-level victory.
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He then came through qualifying again at the 2023 Australian Open and earned a five-set victory in round one before falling in five to No24 seed Roberto Bautista Agut.
That helped him to a career-high ranking of 180 in May 2023 – meaning he spends most of the season slogging it out on the ATP Challenger Tour as he closes in on £400,000 in career earnings.
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