Funky. Unorthodox. Odd-looking. Unconventional. Weird.
Those adjectives have been uttered to Jenson Brooksby’s game, but, given his rise during 2021, a few more descriptors should also be in tow:
Effective. Compelling. Disarming. Dangerous.
The 20-year-old Sacramento native has forged a surprising path into the Round of 16 at the US Open with an array of groundstrokes that closely resemble someone carving a pumpkin for Halloween—from numerous two-handed slice backhands to deft topspin lobs. It captivates and confounds, mesmerizes and mind-boggles. Fellow American Jessica Pegula took to Twitter this week to try and describe his game, comparing it to fellow slicer-and-dicer Sofia Kenin.
The extreme uniqueness of Brooksby’s game has only been matched this entire summer by its extreme effectiveness, and his three match wins at Flushing Meadows—including two against Top-50 opponents—allowed Brooksby to become the youngest American man to reach the Round of 16 at the US Open since a 20-year-old Andy Roddick made the quarterfinals back in 2002. Now Brooksby has the opportunity to put his funky game to the ultimate test: a night match in Arthur Ashe Stadium against world No. 1 Novak Djokovic in the Serb's quest to complete the Grand Slam.
“It will be a great challenge. One of the toughest there can be,” Brooksby said about the prospect of playing Djokovic. “But I'm really believing in myself with what I'm showing out there so far.”
Watching tonight’s match, or any of Brooksby’s matches during his wildly successful summer run, would lead many to believe his game could not have been developed in the United States. Inspired by the likes of Roddick and the Williams sisters, the style many American players incorporate is one of brute force, with booming serves and punishing forehands. Brooksby, who admits that he did not idolize any players during his formative years, clearly breaks that American, "big tennis" tennis mold; He constantly looks to redirect power to gain an advantage during points rather than to generate his own. Since he was seven years old, Brooksby has been with his private coach in Sacramento, Joseph Gilbert, developing his eclectic style, and the two agreed early on in their partnership as to how to approach the game to maximize his potential.
“I think it's like a combination of both. I mean, like maybe I do have a little more variety than some of the other people he trains,” Brooksby said when asked where his style of play comes from and about Gilbert’s influence. “But I think it's definitely just the mindset he approaches, of how to play the game, how to train. Then those things have just come naturally with all the practice over the years, like whether it's the moving ball with the slice, just a different variety of shots. That's definitely how we've trained. It's part me but a lot of him. That's how it's been.”
Brooksby’s second-round match on Thursday came against fellow American Taylor Fritz, the 2015 US Open boys’ singles champion who fits the “big serve, big forehand” style to a T. In that four-set victory on the Grandstand, Brooksby hit 33 winners compared to Fritz’s 59, but Brooksby’s ability to cover the court and keep rallies alive frustrated Fritz all night. (To be fair, one of Brooksby’s winners was one of the shots of the entire tournament, a running forehand that he guided around the net post that skidded just inside of the sideline.) Brooksby won the first of his three sets against Fritz, a second-set tiebreak, in a rally that epitomized Brooksby’s guile and genius—a 34-stroke rally, mostly controlled by Fritz, that ended with a Fritz backhand into the net and Brooksby on his knees gasping for air immediately after he won the point.
Fritz’s full-on “Jenson Brooksby Experience” was complete at match point, when he snapped his racquet in half across his knee after his 59th unforced error gave Brooksby the victory.
Watch: Brooksby vs. Fritz - R2 Highlights
Before July, Brooksby, currently ranked a career-high No. 99 in the world, had not played in the main draw of an ATP Tour event (only three Grand Slam appearances, including a win over Tomas Berdych in the first round of the 2019 US Open). Brooksby won three Challenger Tour events between February and April, allowing him to crack into the Top 150 in June. One month later, Brooksby went on a remarkable run in his first ATP Tour main draw at the Hall of Fame Open in Newport, Rhode Island, making it to the final before losing to Kevin Anderson.
In his second-ever ATP Tour event, Brooksby made the semifinals of the Citi Open in Washington, D.C., defeating Anderson, Frances Tiafoe, Felix Auger-Aliassime and John Millman in consecutive matches—and all in straight sets—before losing to eventual champion Jannik Sinner.
At the US Open, Brooksby followed his second-round victory over Fritz in the second round with five-set thriller against No. 21 seed Aslan Karatsev to reach the Round of 16. Karatsev, whose meteoric rise in the rankings has been one of the surprising stories of 2021, also was thrown off his powerful game on his way to 61 unforced errors.
The secret was now out on Brooksby, and even if many tennis fans are still trying to get to know the young Californian, those in the know already have taken notice — including a certain 20-time Grand Slam champion. When asked about the possibility of playing the Brooksby-Karatsev winner (the match was still in progress at the time) during his on-court interview on Thursday, Djokovic quickly offered high praise to Brooksby’s immense and unconventional talents, putting to bed the real possibility that the Serbian was not familiar with the upstart American with three total ATP Tour level events under his belt.
“Brooksby is one of the players that the locker room talks about quite often lately because of his talent,” Djokovic said. “Plays quite an unorthodox game. Florian Mayer used to play like that with the two-handed slice. I think he’s an intelligent player. He uses the court very well.”
So if Djokovic has knowledge of Brooksby and his game, the same must be true the other way around.
Actually…
“I don't know much honestly. I don't really watch much or think about that too much,” Brooksby said sincerely when asked about his thoughts on Djokovic and his style of play. “Obviously he's been a great player consistently, one of the best, if not the best, consistently over the years. But, no, I'll have the best strategy I can going out there against him and I'll believe in what I'm doing, just like any other match.”
It is not hard to believe in Brooksby, because almost everything he does while out on the court is, in all senses of the word, unbelievable.
