As Jason Brooksby spoke, he tugged at the right shoulder of his red T-shirt and played with his dirty blond hair. Associated Press About what he wants the world — yes, the tennis world, and everyone else — to know about him.
Brooksby, once part of a group of American men’s rookies who have enjoyed huge victories at the majors, wants people to understand what happened during his nearly two “frustrating” years away from the tour. It’s “easy to get frustrated,” he said. He was ranked No. 33 in 2022 at age 21, just one year after turning pro, but is now unranked after being sidelined by injury, surgery and a ban related to a missed drug test (which was eventually reduced).
And, as Brooksby prepares to compete again in January, including at the Australian Open, he wants people — other players, and yes, anyone else, including those with autism or who know someone with autism — was able to hear about his life experiences in a recent interview in which he publicly discussed autism spectrum disorder for the first time.
“It’s … just something I don’t want to keep a secret,” Brooksby said during a post-practice lunch in the board room on the USTA National Campus. It is located about 20 miles east of Walt Disney World and is the preseason training site for about a dozen tennis pros.
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“It’s obviously a personal topic and even with people you might feel comfortable with – in my opinion, at least over a long period of time – it’s not (something) just blurted out as part of a conversation, You know what?” Brooksby, 24, a California native, said he couldn’t speak until he was 4 years old. “But I kept thinking about it, and … eventually I just wanted to talk about it.”
As a child, he said, he spent about 40 hours a week with a therapist “to be able to start talking… (and) then get better at communication and social situations.”
There are currently no blood or biological tests for autism, a developmental disorder caused by differences in the brain discovered through observations of children’s behavior. Previously diagnosed only in children with severe language difficulties, social difficulties, and unusual repetitive behaviors, autism is now defined more broadly and is also used to describe a group of milder related conditions.
Brooksby called autism a “powerful force” in “stressful moments” on the court, allowing him to “be able to focus very well on two or three specific details for a long period of time.” ” accompanied by signs of discomfort, such as reaching for clothes or hair, or leaning forward with hands on knees.
Brooksby “acted out very severely” as a child and is now “in a very mild form,” said Michelle Wagner, a board-certified behavior analyst who specializes in autism spectrum disorder. She said she first started treating Brooksby when he was 2 years and 9 months old, after he had been diagnosed by someone else. Wagner said the progress he’s made is an “unusual and unique result.”
In October 2023, the International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA) initially imposed an 18-month ban on Brooksby.
He was not accused of testing positive for a banned substance, but instead failed to attend three drug tests in 12 months; his side argued, according to the ITIA’s preliminary report, that he had no contact with doping control officials who tried to find him at a hotel in the Netherlands. The miscommunication “was not due to any negligence on the part of (the players)”.
Brooksby appealed, and he and the ITIA agreed to a reduced penalty, making him eligible to return in March 2024 instead of January 2025. ITIA said it was due to “circumstances related to the missed test.” ITIA has never announced what the new information was; on Wednesday, a spokesperson declined to comment on the case.
But Wagner said her opinion was included in the appeal. She oversees Brooksby’s treatment program until age 6, which includes language development and age-appropriate self-help skills, such as dressing alone or preparing a backpack for school.
She told the Daily Mail it was “clear he needed more intervention at the time”. Associated Press. “He had some serious behavioral challenges and was… falling behind his peers.”
Wagner said that as part of her appeal, she explained how autism affected Brooksby’s decision-making as an adult and resulted in what she described as a “lack of executive function,” meaning he had difficulty understanding “if I do this, That could be the outcome; if I don’t do that, (something else) could happen.”
Brooksby plans to play on the lower-tier Challenger Tour in Canberra, Australia, next month before heading to the Australian Open, which starts on January 12. It was in January 2023 that Brooksby defeated three-time Grand Slam winner Casper Rudd. Two days later, Brooksby lost to eventual semifinalist Tommy Paul.
This concludes the “Events” section of the Brooksby ATP Tour Record. He first underwent surgery on his left wrist in March of that year. Then he had surgery on his right wrist in May. Then came the ban.
“Multiple bad things happened at the same time,” he said. “It’s a lot to take on mentally.”
Brooksby did not play immediately after the layoff, partly because of shoulder pain when he returned to hitting and partly because he was assembling a new team (he is now working with coaches Eric Nunez and Ryan Williams Si and Kinney, who was previously him in 2022).
Tennis coaches Eric Nunez (left) and Ryan Williams (center) work with Jenson Brooksby (right) at the USTA National Campus in Orlando on Dec. 10. |Photo credit: AP
Tennis coaches Eric Nunez (left) and Ryan Williams (center) work with Jenson Brooksby (right) at the USTA National Campus in Orlando on Dec. 10. |Photo credit: AP
Kinney said Brooksby trained to improve his body, including his posture, and certain parts of his game, including his serve.
“Trying to get better,” Brooksby said. “That’s the goal.”
The 6-foot-4 Brooksby has shown enough talent, game intelligence and unique shooting ability to defeat major finalists Rudd, Stefanos Tsitsipas, Tyler Fritz, Tomas Berdych and Kevin Anderson.
He earned high praise from 24-time Grand Slam champion Novak Djokovic as Brooksby took a set before losing in the fourth round of the 2021 US Open.
Referring to some of the things Djokovic said that night — “We’re going to see a lot of him in the future” and “His game is a little bit unorthodox” — Brooksby nodded and responded, “I would say that’s pretty accurate. of” “.
Most groundstrokes grunt, and he wears white tape on both wrists during practice. Associated PressVisit – outside in the morning and inside in the afternoon.
“It’s hard to say what the ceiling is. … He can be a top-10 player,” Nunez said. “When he goes into any race, he only has one gear and that’s full speed mode.”
“I just want people to get to know me well and this is just another part of me,” Brooksby said. “I had a lot of time not playing and a lot of things to think about.”
It takes some getting used to the idea.
“He was worried,” said his longtime adviser, Amrit Narasimhan, “about what people would think of him.”
What now?
“He wants players to understand him better; that’s a big part of it,” Narasimhan said. “He wanted to tell his story so people could understand who he was.”
