Jensen Brooksby wins first match since 2023 at Indian Wells

It had been a while since Jenson Brooksby faced the bright sun and swirling winds of Indian Wells, and it showed. The 24-year-old from Northern California, who made the fourth round here in 2022 and never returned, lost the first nine points of his opening-round match with Benjamin Bonzi on Thursday. He overhit balls long. He shanked them skyward. He lunged in the breeze. Less than five minutes after starting the match, he was already raising his arms and looking over at his coaching team in frustration.

Was Brooksby still too rusty for the big time? That’s how he had looked in his first match of this season, a blowout loss to Taylor Fritz at the Australian Open. The rust, of course, was understandable. Brooksby had hardly played, and hadn’t won an ATP-level match, in two years.

Then, at deuce in the third game, the clock suddenly turned back, or maybe the rust suddenly fell off. Brooksby seemed to be out of the point three times, but he kept running, kept scrambling, and eventually tracked down a ball and threaded a precision forehand past Bonzi at the net. He pumped his fist, and the crowd roared. That was the type of rally, the type of effort, and the type of shot that could only be called Brooksbyan. It wouldn’t be the last on this afternoon.

At 21, Brooksby had been one of the leaders—albeit an unorthodox and seemingly solitary one—of a young wave of U.S. men making their way up the rankings. But while Fritz, Tommy Paul, Francis Tiafoe, and Ben Shelton continued into the Top 15, Brooksby disappeared.

First there was wrist surgery, in 2023. Then there was the devastating blow of an 18-month suspension for missing three doping tests, which was later reduced after Brooksby claimed that there had been confusion with a tester in the Netherlands. Then there was a bad shoulder that kept him out even longer.

The ordeal, Brooksby told the AP last December, “made it easy to get depressed.”

In that same interview, Brooksby also revealed that he is autistic, and while his case is much milder now, he had been non-verbal until he was 4. As far as playing tennis goes, he said that his condition can be a “big strength,” as it allows him “to focus on two or three specific details really well for a long time.”

That focus was apparent to Brooksby’s first coach, Joseph Gilbert, from the start. Gilbert first spotted him as a five-year-old hitting against a wall at a Northern California tennis club. He could see the kid had competitive spirit; rather than just practicing his swing over and over, he looked like he was battling an imaginary opponent—Rafael Nadal, according to the young Brooksby. Concentration, as much as size or strength or athleticism, was what Gilbert was looking for, and he found it in Brooksby.

“In tennis, you can be on court four or five hours at a time, with distractions,” Gilbert said. “That’s hard for a lot of kids these days. He loved to play, and he could focus for hours.”

There aren’t many examples of autistic athletes in professional sports. Brooksby’s revelation of his condition could make him one, if he can find his old form, and rejoin the growing U.S. army of Top 50 players. Brooksby has been working out at the USTA’s National Center in Florida under the guidance of a new pair of coaches, Rhyne Williams and Eric Nuñez. Thursday turned out to be the biggest positive step of his comeback so far, a well as the first sign that he still has the unique set of skills that took him as high as No. 33 three years ago.

Against Bonzi, Brooksby slowly found the range on his serve, his ground strokes, and his drops and volleys, both of which he hits in an unorthodox, two-handed fashion. Over the last two sets, he and the Frenchman matched missiles from the baseline, while Brooksby hung on, long enough and tenaciously enough, until he won.

He lost the first set 6-1. After going up 4-2 in the second set, he double faulted to give the break back, but then came up with just enough defense, and a flicked crosscourt backhand pas at set point, to level the match.

In the third, Brooksby was broken at 3-3, then fell behind on Bonzi’s serve 40-0. Just when it looked over for him, the grit and the focus kicked in. He came back to break Bonzi for 4-4, saved five break points on his own serve at 5-5, and broke at 6-5 to escape with a 1-6, 7-5, 7-5 win. Bonzi won two more points and one more game, but Brooksby—doing Brooksbyan things—won the match.