Like many a 20-year-old American in Paris for the first time, tennis pro Jenson Brooksby is excited about where he is and eager to see where he's headed.
Brooksby, who's from Sacramento, California, has been tearing up the lower-level ATP Challenger Tour — 19-2 record; youngest U.S. player to accumulate three titles in one season on that circuit in 15 years; ranking rose from 315th in February to 163rd on Monday — and now he's looking for more.
Not just this week, when he's scheduled to face 20-year-old German Cedrik-Marcel Stebe, who is seeded 20th, at Roland Garros in French Open qualifying Tuesday, but in the years to come. Asked where he sees himself a decade from now, Brooksby did not hesitate a bit.
"I mean, by then, I want to be No. 1 in the world. I believe I can do it. It's a long road. It takes a lot of, obviously, a lot of hard work, a lot of discipline getting better. But I believe I'm very motivated enough to do that," he said in an interview with The Associated Press conducted via Zoom. "And by then, even five, 10 years, or before — I mean, I don't want put limits on it, my goals — I definitely want to be the best player in the world."
This is what competitiveness and confidence sound like. It's also evidence that having had a taste, albeit a brief one, of the uppermost echelon of a sport can do for someone who is trying to make it big one day.